‘Flamingo’ is a glorious collection of 11 tracks, resonating with complex pop unspooling, vast lyrical scope and the confident animation of a world lit with familiar dreams and desires. A striking follow up to the debut ‘Self Talk’, an album that was nominated for an ARIA award, J Award for Best Video, shortlisted in the Australian Music Prize and selected as triple j feature album. Olivia Bartley, creative force behind the project, co-produced the upcoming album with long-time collaborator Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett, DMAs).
“The record explores how grief and desire are intertwined. It’s referencing a personal tragedy – the addiction and loss of someone very close to me,” says Bartley. “But it’s not a project of catharsis – I chose to submit myself to this experience because I wanted to create from inside it, rather than explaining it. I’ve tried to borrow from my own grief to create its inverse: something joyous. Something beyond myself, something fantastic -something new”.
“It’s the most personal I’ve ever been, but also the most confident. This album is a force.”
Taking the stage as a curtain raiser for ‘Flamingo’ is brand new track ‘Hounds’, a shimmering, kaleidoscopic requiem about calling someone out on their bullshit, or rather, what it means to be human; to feel and to evolve.
This song is pure emotional force. A compelling journey from the first beat which drives to ever-escalating releases within the song. Lyrics are immediate, addressing someone driven by dissatisfaction, chasing something they can’t name even to themselves: ’Your reinventions endless, I’ll keep belief suspended’; trying out multiple versions of themselves as though magic tricks: ‘Walking on water, cut in half’; and someone who falls for everything, they could even ‘drown in the sun’. The listener is rewarded at each lift within the song, as Bartley demonstrates masterful pop sensibility. Sonically we hear a deft balancing act between moments that touch on nostalgia, even facetious sonic hints at religiosity, with elements that are startlingly unique and their own.
‘Hounds’ is lush and imaginative, belying its rage. The intent behind chorus line ‘I just released a single hound’, on par with TV on the Radio’s ‘Wolf Like Me’, or the Walkmen’s ‘The Rat’. Instinctive, emotional and high energy. ‘Hounds’ follows singles ‘Shoot to Forget’ & ‘Star City’ which have made an immediate imprint on the international music community with airplay on Radio 1, BBC 6, a number of high profile international playlist additions, airplay on triple j, double j and community radio nationally.
Includes unlimited streaming of Flamingo
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
...more
ships out within 5 days
$35AUDor more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
‘Flamingo’ is a glorious collection of 11 tracks, resonating with complex pop unspooling, vast lyrical scope and the confident animation of a world lit with familiar dreams and desires. A striking follow up to the debut ‘Self Talk’, an album that was nominated for an ARIA award, J Award for Best Video, shortlisted in the Australian Music Prize and selected as triple j feature album. Olivia Bartley, creative force behind the project, co-produced the upcoming album with long-time collaborator Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett, DMAs).
“The record explores how grief and desire are intertwined. It’s referencing a personal tragedy – the addiction and loss of someone very close to me,” says Bartley. “But it’s not a project of catharsis – I chose to submit myself to this experience because I wanted to create from inside it, rather than explaining it. I’ve tried to borrow from my own grief to create its inverse: something joyous. Something beyond myself, something fantastic -something new”.
“It’s the most personal I’ve ever been, but also the most confident. This album is a force.”
Taking the stage as a curtain raiser for ‘Flamingo’ is brand new track ‘Hounds’, a shimmering, kaleidoscopic requiem about calling someone out on their bullshit, or rather, what it means to be human; to feel and to evolve.
This song is pure emotional force. A compelling journey from the first beat which drives to ever-escalating releases within the song. Lyrics are immediate, addressing someone driven by dissatisfaction, chasing something they can’t name even to themselves: ’Your reinventions endless, I’ll keep belief suspended’; trying out multiple versions of themselves as though magic tricks: ‘Walking on water, cut in half’; and someone who falls for everything, they could even ‘drown in the sun’. The listener is rewarded at each lift within the song, as Bartley demonstrates masterful pop sensibility. Sonically we hear a deft balancing act between moments that touch on nostalgia, even facetious sonic hints at religiosity, with elements that are startlingly unique and their own.
‘Hounds’ is lush and imaginative, belying its rage. The intent behind chorus line ‘I just released a single hound’, on par with TV on the Radio’s ‘Wolf Like Me’, or the Walkmen’s ‘The Rat’. Instinctive, emotional and high energy. ‘Hounds’ follows singles ‘Shoot to Forget’ & ‘Star City’ which have made an immediate imprint on the international music community with airplay on Radio 1, BBC 6, a number of high profile international playlist additions, airplay on triple j, double j and community radio nationally.
Includes unlimited streaming of Flamingo
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
...more
ships out within 5 days
$15AUDor more
Bag
ships out within 5 days
$10AUDor more
lyrics
Ahh~
I walk along the
side of the road
the party debris
the shimmering mess releases
I flicker there in the pieces
We’re tied to each other
lantana licks the chain link
outside her house, the lights are on
I’m waiting for dreams to fade
I’ll never get used to it
aware of the cold that we made,
you trying to e-scape it
come to me like a song
come to me like you mean it
like you were here all along
come to me now i need you
(heart, heart it will ache)
heart it will ache
(I’m undone, come back)
Come back, come back I need you
ahh~
postcard destination
for honeymooners and jumpers
deliver me the prodigal
let tomorrow be possible
lonely prayers like pills
dissolve under the tongue
and shrug into your resolve
These things that we do to get by
we invent, and we pretend
will you ever change your mind?
I’m not ready for the end
come to me like a song
come to me like you mean it
like there is nothing wrong
come to me now cause I need you
I need you
(what, what’s left to take?)
What’s left to take?
(come unpack, come back)
come back. come back, I need you
Ahh~
come to me like a song
come to me like you mean it
like the devil is gone
come to me I still need you
I still need you
(I, I can’t exist)
I can’t exist
(two places, come back)
Come back, come back I need you
(whatever you did)
Whatever you did
(lie to me, come back)
Come back, come back I need you.
Oklahoma duo Plain Speak serve up radiant power pop on their latest LP, surrounding sugar-sweet vocal harmonies with pealing chords. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 18, 2023
I think it's difficult to write songs about something other than romantic love, and still be able to communicate the intensity with which those feelings can hit a person. Some of the entries on this album are fantastic examples of this niche. dani_bloop