New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The second full-length album from Australian singer/songwriter Julia Jacklin, Crushing embodies every possible meaning of its title word. It's an album formed from sheer intensity of feeling, an in-the-moment narrative of heartbreak and infatuation. And with her storytelling centered on bodies and crossed boundaries and smothering closeness, Crushing reveals how our physical experience of the world shapes and sometimes distorts our inner lives.
"This album came from spending two years touring and being in a relationship and feeling like I never had any space of my own," says the Melbourne-based artist. "For a long time I felt like my head was full of fear and my body was just this functional thing that carried me from point A to B, and writing these songs was like rejoining the two."
Today, she has released a new song titled "Head Alone", Jacklin tells us "I wrote most of 'Head Alone' on tour, singing it to myself, looking out the window on endless car journeys. It's not a song that comes from a singular experience. It came from two years of feeling like the space around me shrinking to the point where I couldn't even raise my arms. This song is me raising my arms and running into an open field. A bit of a plea to those around me to give me space and a song to remind myself that's it's okay to enforce boundaries, the good people in your life will listen, adapt and still love you."
On Crushing she reflects "I really like this album, I worked hard on it and I really like listening to it. That's not usually how I feel after making something. I've finally come to accept that right now for me, making records is about capturing a time; who I am at that time, what I need to say in the best way I can say it, with minimal studio frills to cover it up."
The follow-up to her 2016 debut Don't Let the Kids Win, Crushing finds Jacklin continually acknowledging what's expected of her, then gracefully rejecting those expectations. As a result, the album invites self-examination and a possible shift in the listener's way of getting around the world—an effect that has everything to do with Jacklin's openness about her own experience.
"I used to be so worried about seeming demanding that I'd put up with anything, which I think is common—you want to be chill and cool, but it ends up taking so much of your emotional energy," says Jacklin. "Now I've gotten used to calling out things I'm not okay with, instead of just burying my feelings to make it easier on everyone. I've realized that in order to keep the peace, you have to speak up for yourself and say what you really want."
Last month Jacklin released "Body", a starkly composed portrait of a breakup, the song bears an often-bracing intimacy, a sense that you're right in the room with Jacklin as she lays her heart out. NPR
Music premiered the song and video writing, "The Australian singer-songwriter has a knack for packing an emotional punch with her deceptively fragile sound" while The FADER describe "Body" as "A maudlin song about your shitty boyfriend being arrested on a plane for smoking in the toilets. What's not to love?"
"As I was making this album there was sort of a slow loosening of pressure on myself," Jacklin says. "There've been some big life changes for me over the last few years, and I just found it too tiring to try to cover things up with a lot of metaphors and word trickery. I just wanted to lay it all out there and trust that, especially at such a tense moment in time, other people might want to hear a little vulnerability."
Crushing is out February 22nd on Polyvinyl & Universal Music.
World Tour Dates:
11/27 - London, UK @ Omeara [SOLD OUT]
11/28 - Manchester, UK @ YES [SOLD OUT]
11/29 - Glasgow, UK @ Glad Cafe [SOLD OUT]
12/29 - Woodford, Australia @ Woodford Folk Festival
02/21 - Perth, Australia @ Perth Festival
02/27 - Christchurch, New Zealand @ Blue Smoke
02/28 - Dunedin, New Zealand @ Refuel
03/01 - Auckland, New Zealand @ Hollywood Cinema
03/02 - Wellington, New Zealand @ San Fran
03/05 - Wollongong, Australia @ UOW Unibar
03/06 - Canberra, Australia @ ANU
03/09 - Brisbane, Australia @ Triffid
03/08 - 03/11 - Adelaide, Australia @ WOMADelaide
03/14 - Melbourne, Australia @ Forum Theatre
03/15 - Sydney, Australia @ Metro Theatre
03/16 - Newcastle, Australia @ Cambridge Hotel
03/26 - Brighton, UK @ Haunt
03/27 - Bristol, UK @ Fleece
03/28 - Birmingham, UK @ Castle & Falcon
03/29 - Manchester, UK @ Yes
03/30 - Dublin, Ireland @ Whelans
04/02 - Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
4/03 - Leeds, UK @ Belgrave
Music Hall
04/04 - London, UK @ Electric Brixton
04/05 - Paris, France @ Les Etoiles
04/08 - Brussels, Belgium @ AB Club
04/09 - Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso-Noord
04/10 - Cologne, Germany @ Blue Shell
04/11 - Hamburg, Germany @ Molotow Sky Bar
04/12 - Copenhagen, Denmark @ Vega
04/15 - Berlin, Germany @ Privatclub
04/16 - Munich, Germany @ Milla
04/17 - Zurich, Switzerland @ Bogen F
04/24 - New York, NY @ The Bowery Ballroom #
04/25 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's #
04/26 - Allston, MA @ Great Scott #
04/27 - Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz PDB #
04/28 - Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern #
04/30 - Washington, DC @ DC9 #
05/01 - Richmond, VA @ Strange Matter #
05/02 - Carrboro, NC @ Cat's Cradle Back Room #
05/06 - Nashville, TN @ Third Man Records #
05/08 - Chicago, IL @ Schubas Tavern #
05/09 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry #
05/10 - Omaha, NE @ Reverb Lounge #
05/11 - Kansas City, MO @ recordBar #
05/13 - Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge #
05/14 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge #
05/17 - Vancouver, BC @ Fox Cabaret #
05/18 - Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern #
05/19 - Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
05/21 - San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Hall
05/23 - Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
06/03 - Dallas, TX @ Club Dada
06/04 - Austin, TX @ Barracuda (Indoors) #
06/05 - Houston, TX @ White Oak
Music Hall (Upstairs) #
06/06 - New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa #
# w/
Black Belt Eagle Scout
Crushing Tracklisting:
Body
Head Alone
Pressure To Party
Don't Know How To Keep Loving You
When The Family Flies In
Convention
Good Guy
You Were Right
Turn Me Down
Comfort
