Australian star Julia Jacklin is releasing her new album PRE PLEASURE in August, and following on from lead single “Lydia Wears A Cross” she today presents “I Was Neon”. The track is in some ways the crux of the new album, as Jacklin reveals:
“I first wrote ‘I was neon’ for a band called rattlesnack, a short-lived much loved 2019 side project that I played drums in. I rewrote it for my album in Montreal, during a time when I was desperately longing for a version of myself that I feared was gone forever. I was thinking of this song when I made the album cover, this song is the album cover really.”
Where the previous single was a bobbing art-pop jam, “I Was Neon” is a chugging guitar rocker that emphasises visceral nature of the Jacklin’s anguish. It finds the songwriter clawing onto some semblance of herself while her life keeps hurtling forward; that “neon” aspect to her character seems to be fading as she grows older and more cynical, but it’s something she desperately wants to maintain; her softness and steadiness. She doesn’t have any clear answers and instead sends the song on a white-knuckle ride where she just keeps questioning “am I gonna lose myself again?” through the desperate chorus. Urgent and essential, this is why we love Julia Jacklin.
Watch the video for “I Was Neon” below or find the song on streaming platforms.
Julia Jacklin’s new album PRE PLEASURE will be out on August 26 through Transgressive / Polyvinyl (pre-order/save). You can find Jacklin on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
