New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Today, Australian singer-songwriter Julia Jacklin shares the music video to her new single 'Head Alone'. Directed by her long-time visual collaborator Nick Mckk, Julia explains, "We shot this clip in the streets of Melbourne last minute before tour. We waited until golden hour, Nick sat in the back of a car while my friend tom drove and we just tried it as many times as we could before we lost light. This was the last take; I was exhausted from chasing the car but I think it worked because I gave up being graceful. I couldn't think of what to do for this song because the words mean a lot to me and I didn't want to distract people from the song. I just wanted to act the way the song makes me feel. Empowered and hopeful. Felt sick from the exhaust fumes but I think we captured the feeling."
The single is taken from her forthcoming album, Crushing, which will be released February 22, 2019.
The second full-length album from 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. The follow-up to her critically acclaimed 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.
Produced by Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett, Liam Finn) and recorded at The Grove Studios, Crushing sets Jacklin's understated defiance against a raw yet luminous sonic backdrop. "In all the songs, you can hear every sound from every instrument; you can hear my throat and hear me breathing," she says. "It was really important to me that you can hear everything for the whole record, without any studio tricks getting in the way."
On the album-opening lead single "Body" - released last month - Jacklin proves the power of that approach, turning out a mesmerizing vocal performance even as she slips into the slightest murmur. 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. And as "Body" wanders and drifts, Jacklin establishes Crushing as an album that exists entirely on its own time, a work that's willfully unhurried.
And whilst a moving and complex listen, Crushing unfolds with an ease that echoes Jacklin's newfound self-reliance as an artist. "With the first album I was so nervous and didn't quite see myself as a musician yet, but after touring for two years, I've come to feel like I deserve to be in that space," she says. Throughout Crushing, that sense of confidence manifests in one of the most essential elements of the album: the captivating strength of Jacklin's lyrics. Not only proof of her ingenuity and artistic generosity, Jacklin's uncompromising specificity and infinitely unpredictable turns of phrase ultimately spring from a certain self-possession in the songwriting process.
Crushing will be released February 22nd via Transgressive Records on limited edition vinyl, CD, Cassette and digital and is available to pre-order now.
Currently in the UK for a run of three intimate sold out dates, Julia and her band will return in the spring of 2019 with a full UK/European and North American tour - Full details below.
NORTH AMERICA
April
24 - Bowery Ballroom, New York NY w/
Black Belt Eagle Scout
25 - Johnny Brenda's, Philadelphia PA w/
Black Belt Eagle Scout
26 - Great Scott,
Boston MA w/
Black Belt Eagle Scout
27 - Bar le Ritz, Montreal QC w/
Black Belt Eagle Scout
28 - Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto ON w/
Black Belt Eagle Scout
30 - DC9, Washington DC w/
Black Belt Eagle Scout
May
1 - Strange Matter, Richmond VA w/
Black Belt Eagle Scout
2 - Cat's Cradle, Carrboro NC w/
Black Belt Eagle Scout
6 - Third Man, Nashville TN w/
Black Belt Eagle Scout
8 - Schubas,
Chicago IL w/
Black Belt Eagle Scout
9 - 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis MN w/
Black Belt Eagle Scout
10 - Reverb, Omaha NE w/
Black Belt Eagle Scout
11 - Recordbar, Kansas City MO w/
Black Belt Eagle Scout
13 - Larimer Lounge, Denver CO w/
Black Belt Eagle Scout
14 - Urban Lounge, Salt Lake City UT w/
Black Belt Eagle Scout
17 - Fox Cabaret, Vancouver BC w/
Black Belt Eagle Scout
18 - Tractor Tavern, Seattle WA w/
Black Belt Eagle Scout
19 - Mississippi Studios, Portland OR
21 - Swedish American
Music Hall, San Francisco CA
23 - Teragram, Los Angeles CA
2019
Tuesday 26th March: Haunt, Brighton
Wednesday 27th March: Fleece, Bristol
Thursday 28th March: Castle & Falcon, Birmingham
Friday 29th March: Yes, Manchester
Saturday 30th March: Whelans, Dublin
Tuesday 2nd April: Stereo, Glasgow
Wednesday 3rd April: Belgrave
Music Hall, Leeds
Thursday 4th April: Electric Brixton, London
Friday 5th April: Les Etoiles, Paris
Monday 8th April: AB Club, Brussels
Tuesday 9th April: Paradiso-Noord, Amsterdam
Wednesday 10th April: Blue Shell, Cologne
Thursday 11th April: Molotow Sky Bar, Hamburg
Friday 12th April: Vega, Copenhagen
Monday 15th April: Privatclub, Berlin
Tuesday 16th April: Milla, Munich
Wednesday 17th April: Bogen F, Zurich
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
