‘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
about
The things we want are transformative, and we don’t know or only think we know what is on the other side of that transformation. Never to get lost is not to live. Rebecca Solnit
For to wish to forget how much you loved someone-- and then, to actually forget-- can feel, at times, like the slaughter of a beautiful bird who chose, by nothing short of grace, to make a habitat of your heart.
Maggie Nelson
lyrics
Hides behind the camera
So he can
Shoot to forget
I was just a postcard from the gift shop
Left by a tourist
And I’ve spent this long trying to pretend
That love don’t exist
do, do, do
I worry bout it
do, do, do
I worry bout it
Found an old photo of you in a suitcase
Words stuck in the throat
Gotta keep this little heart of mine
Full of air afloat
And there is no need to learn to swim, the
Beach boys have life boats
do, do, do
I worry bout it
do, do, do
I worry bout it
I try
To forget
Reach for the bright blue
There’s glass you break through
To let go
But the bird
Already
Hit window
Radio aches with that song we used to sing
Lovely little melody
If there were still a possibility
There’d be no tunes and no me
But I would’ve given it all up for
Your love, your jealousy
do, do, do
I worry bout it
do, do, do
I worry bout it
I try
To forget
Reach for the bright blue
There’s glass you break through
To let go
But the bird
Already
Hit window
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
supported by 5 fans who also own “Shoot To Forget”
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
