Mei Semones Announces Second Album 'Howl' and 2026 North American Tour

Mei Semones will release her second album, Howl, on January 15. The record marks her first release for her new labels, Verve and Interscope, and follows her 2025 coming-of-age debut Animaru.

The lead single and title track are out now, accompanied by a music video directed by Takuto Shimpo and filmed in and around a Tokyo convenience store.

Semones wrote the album's titular song after a Fourth of July in Brooklyn, when fireworks exploded over her block and set off a chorus of dog howls. "Sometimes making music feels like howling into the universe," she wrote in a statement. "I make music because I like it, because it feels instinctual—but it also connects me to people close and far. I like to think of this music as my howl."

The 11-track Howl mixes English and Japanese titles, from the opening "Howl" and "素直になりたい" through "Akumu," "Chichibu," "Towards Manhattan," and closer "Kira Kira."

The full tracklist for Howl runs:

1. Howl
2. 素直になりたい
3. 2 Hands
4. Akumu
5. Chichibu
6. Towards Manhattan
7. Senro
8. Hoteru
9. Korokke
10. Monster
11. Kira Kira

Semones will support the album with a North American tour opening February 24 at The Sinclair in Boston, with guitarist Aron! joining her for the first leg. The run reaches Montréal's Theatre Fairmount on February 26, Toronto's Concert Hall on February 27, and her hometown of Ann Arbor, where she plays The Ark on March 1.

The first stretch continues through Chicago's Thalia Hall (March 2), Cleveland's Mahall's (March 3), Philadelphia's Union Transfer (March 5), and New York's Webster Hall (March 6). Before the tour, Semones plays Lincoln Center in New York on October 15.

The routing resumes April 9 at Washington, DC's 9:30 Club and runs through May 8, hitting the Southeast, Texas, the Southwest, and the West Coast along the way. Dates include Third Man Records in Nashville (April 13), Terminal West in Atlanta (April 11), Mohawk in Austin (April 17), the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles (April 23), The Castro in San Francisco (April 24), Commodore in Vancouver (April 27), and Neptune Theatre in Seattle (April 28). The tour closes at Spirit Hall in Pittsburgh on May 8.

With Howl, Semones moves from her indie debut onto two of the industry's major imprints — a step that, paired with a 30-date itinerary spanning both coasts and Canada, positions the Brooklyn songwriter for her widest audience yet when the album arrives on January 15.