After more than six years away from the full-length format, Nicole Atkins is ready to lift the curtain. The New Jersey-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter has announced “Drama,” her seventh studio album and first all-new LP since 2020’s beloved “Italian Ice.” The record arrives Friday, September 18 via Sun Records and Chris Isaak’s new imprint, Wicked Game Records, with pre-orders and pre-saves available now.

To mark the announcement, Atkins has shared the album’s first single, “When the Night Falls,” alongside a moody, cinematic music video filmed in Nashville. It’s a slow-burning entry point into an album that trades in the deep end of the emotional pool — the isolation, separation, and loneliness of a long-distance marriage — filtered through Atkins’s unmistakable knack for turning heartache into something that sounds like a technicolor dream.

Watch the official music video for “When the Night Falls” here: https://youtu.be/gY2X7bYqk3o

“I got together with my old friend Emery Dobyns to write a song together,” Atkins explains. “We had these chords, and the feeling from the music reminded me of something I would’ve written for my first album, Neptune City, and I thought about where I was back then. The toxic love affair. And tying it into who and where I am now, and being able to write a song about terrible love from a place of power. Some would call it growth. I’m just still in love with the ‘sound’ of heartache. It gets me like no other.”

Recorded largely live over four productive days in Nashville with GRAMMY-nominated producer Pat Sansone (Wilco, The Autumn Defense, Robyn Hitchcock), “Drama” is a genre-hopping showcase of Atkins’s alchemy. It bounces from the girl-group rush of “Trippin’ On Teardrops” to the Memphis soul of “For No One,” from the James Bond-meets-Stevie Nicks noir of “Danny” to “Cue The Symphony,” a wonderfully moody duet with none other than Chris Isaak himself.

The album exists thanks in part to Isaak, Atkins’s longtime friend and touring partner, who made her the very first signing to Wicked Game Records. “I’ve been in love with Nicole’s songs for many years and have always followed her career,” Isaak says. “She and I are so simpatico when it comes to the music that inspires us, and she has a unique way of distilling that into her songwriting. She’s a true craftsman and an incredible singer. When it came time to start the label, she was my first thought.”

Joining Atkins on the record are her touring band — guitarist John Paul Keith and drummer Danny Banks — plus contributions from Sansone, in-demand drummer Eric Slick (Dr. Dog, Robyn Hitchcock, Brian Fallon), The Texas Gentlemen’s Dan Creamer, and Scottish troubadour Davey Horne. It’s a stacked room of players, and it shows.

“I’m not trying to rehash or celebrate some bygone era,” Atkins says. “I’m just taking what I like melodically from the past and channeling it into my songs. I like to make them deeply personal. The question I come back to is — how do I make this sound exactly like me?”

Atkins will celebrate the album with a headlining performance at Bethlehem, PA’s Musikfest on August 2 before launching a full fall tour that kicks off October 9 at Columbus, Ohio’s Rumba Cafe and winds through the Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast before wrapping at Nashville’s Skinny Dennis on December 3.

“Drama” Tracklist:
1. Trippin’ on Teardrops
2. Singing in the Mirror
3. Like a Stranger
4. When the Night Falls
5. Cue the Symphony
6. Like It’s The First Time
7. Curtain Call
8. For No One
9. Real Life
10. Crying Out Loud
11. Danny
12. Softly, As You Were

Nicole Atkins Fall 2026 Tour Dates:
Oct 9 — Columbus, OH — Rumba Cafe
Oct 10 — Louisville, KY — Whirling Tiger
Oct 11 — Indianapolis, IN — HIFI
Nov 13 — Columbia, MO — Rose Music Hall
Nov 14 — Kansas City, MO — Record Bar
Nov 15 — Omaha, NE — Reverb Lounge
Nov 17 — St. Paul, MN — Turf Club
Nov 18 — Milwaukee, WI — Vivarium
Nov 20 — Grand Rapids, MI — Pyramid Scheme
Nov 21 — Ann Arbor, MI — Blind Pig
Nov 22 — Cleveland, OH — Beachland
Nov 24 — Albany, NY — Lark Hall
Nov 25 — Hamden, CT — Space Ballroom
Nov 27 — Asbury Park, NJ — Wonder Bar
Nov 28 — Annapolis, MD — Rams Head
Nov 29 — Richmond, VA — Richmond Music Hall
Dec 1 — Charlotte, NC — Snug Harbor
Dec 2 — Asheville, NC — Revival
Dec 3 — Nashville, TN — Skinny Dennis

Pre-order/pre-save “Drama” now, and get lost in “When the Night Falls” while you wait for September 18 to arrive.