Beloved Chicago-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ella Williams has announced Say a Prayer to the Gods of Getting Going, her fourth studio album under the moniker Squirrel Flower. Arriving on August 21st via Polyvinyl Record Co., the album marks a highly anticipated follow-up to 2023’s Tomorrow’s Fire. Along with the announcement, Williams has released the record’s atmospheric lead single, “Reelin,” paired with a striking, serendipitous music video shot across the Indiana dunes and a storm-broken industrial cityscape.
On the single, she comments,
“The lyrics started as an art piece I made on an overdue Kansas Turnpike toll bill. This song is my ode to the push and pull of domesticity and unraveling. Leaving and getting reeled back in, over and over and over and over.”
Written across 2024 and 2025, Say a Prayer to the Gods of Getting Going acts as a living archive of the various locations and characters Williams encountered while travelling through vast American biomes. The record’s tracking process reflects this geographic journey: initially recorded live at a makeshift studio called Merry Meadow in Door County, Wisconsin, the album was later meticulously refined and re-recorded in Asheville, North Carolina, at Drop of Sun Studios. Working with acclaimed producer Alex Farrar (MJ Lenderman, Waxahatchee), Williams was encouraged to step away from heavy indie-rock walls of sound to amplify the quietest, most textured elements of her music, capturing her vocals with an unprecedented, ethereal clarity.
The resulting 11-track LP balances exploration with self-possession, functioning less like a straightforward travelogue and more like a collection of personal, beautifully worn scrapbooks harvested from the edge of a dusty highway. To bring the expansive sonic landscape to life, Williams assembled a brilliant collective of indie heavyweights, friends, and family. The credits feature returning contributors Dave Hartley (The War on Drugs) and Seth Kauffman (Angel Olsen), alongside fresh collaborations with Dimitri Giannopolous (Horse Jumper of Love), Sofia Jensen (Free Range), and Clay Frankel (Twin Peaks). Currently on the road supporting The Beths and Spoon, with a high-profile August date supporting Ethel Cain in Chicago, Squirrel Flower will launch her first full-band headlining tour in two years across North America this autumn.
The post Squirrel Flower Announces New Album ‘Say a Prayer to the Gods of Getting Going’ and Shares Single ‘Reelin’ appeared first on Indie is not a genre.
