Australia is finally getting a new Stella Donnelly album.
Announced yesterday (September 11th), Love and Fortune will arrive on Friday, November 7th via Dot Dash Recordings / Remote Control.
According to a press release, Donnelly’s forthcoming album is “a deeply personal and anchored body of work that traces the journey back to herself after a period of profound change.”
Donnelly’s highly anticipated album, which was recorded slowly and carefully in Naarm/Melbourne, comes after a period of quiet reflection for the Australian singer-songwriter, a necessary endeavour following several intense years of touring.
“These songs wouldn’t leave me alone,” Donnelly admits. “Like seagulls, they screamed at me when I rode to work, they pecked at me while I wrote essays, and they stole my chips the second I thought I was happier without music.”
Love and Fortune features new single “Feel It Change”, which premiered on Huw Stephens’ BBC 6 Music show this week. Listen below.
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“I wrote this song on a baritone guitar in the shed of my sharehouse, plugged into all of my housemate’s overdrive pedals. I think the neighbours started getting shitty after a while because I stewed on the same chords for ages,” Donnelly says. “It’s about the rumination of slowly peeling off the band-aid of a relationship that was doomed to fall apart. Trying to capture that phase of a break up where all you do is bristle and fizz in resentment and finger pointing.”
The album also features double A-side single “Baths” / “Standing Ovation”, Donnelly’s first new music since her 2022 album Flood.
Donnelly said she came up with the melody for “Baths” while swimming laps at Brunswick Baths in Melbourne.
“The pool filter was making a humming sound on one note which allowed me to sing a melody over the top,” she explained. “It then continued when I got home and had a shower with the bathroom fan on. Both activities made it difficult to write any lyrics down. I finally sat with a keyboard and held a note and it all just came together. A little timeline of my life so far.”
Donnelly’s last album came in 2022 when Flood made it into the top 30 on the ARIA Albums Chart. Flood, which made several year-end lists, earned a four-star review from Rolling Stone AU/NZ.
“It’s been three years since the stunning debut from Stella Donnelly, Beware of the Dogs, but the absence has only sharpened her sound and introspective songwriting,” the publication wrote.
“The jangling indie-pop gems we’ve come to expect remain, but there are intriguing new layers elsewhere… With its thoughtful mixture of sonic experimentation and classic touches, Flood achieves exactly what a sophomore album should.”
Stella Donnelly’s “Feel It Change” is out now. Love and Fortune is out Friday, November 7th via Dot Dash Recordings / Remote Control Records (pre-save/pre-order here).
