Julia Jacklin has announced that she’ll release a new album called PRE PLEASURE on August 26 through Transgressive. On the title, she explains:
“A lot of the time I feel like I need to do all the work before I can enjoy my life. Whether that’s work on songs or sex, friendships, or my relationship with my family – I think if I work on them long and hard enough, eventually I’ll get to sit around and really enjoy them. But that’s not how anything works is it. It’s all an ongoing process.”
She’s also shared the album’s opening track “Lydia Wears A Cross”, saying: “The song is about a lot of things but mainly being a 7yr old Jesus Christ superstar fanatic attending catholic school trying to figure out which way is up.”
Jacklin’s gift for balancing tenderness with sharp wit is on full display in “Lydia Wears A Cross” as she takes us back to scenes from her childhood Catholic school; “knees and eyes closed / I felt pretty in the shoes and the dress / confused by the rest could he hear me?” That uncertainty about god is contrasted with her devout friend Lydia, who says she’ll never take her cross off. One place where she and Jacklin do align is their love of Jesus Christ Superstar, but it leads Jacklin to admitting “I’d be a believer if it was all just song and dance.” The song’s arrangement is subtle but perfectly attuned to glide through this thorny set of memories, with a steady knock punctuating the lines and a soaring guitar line that coming through later like the scent of those memorable younger days. In its observation of the way childhood experience colours who we become as adults, “Lydia Wears A Cross” is an unassumingly potent song.
On the video, Jacklin says: “The music video was filmed by my constant collaborator and friend Nick Mckk at Splitpoint lighthouse. I played a show close by recently and asked on stage if anyone could let me film inside. Someone in the crowd knew a guy and that was it. The rest was filmed in the streets of Northcote, Melbourne.”
Watch the video for “Lydia Wears A Cross” below or find the song on streaming platforms.
Julia Jacklin’s new album PRE PLEASURE will be out on August 26 through Transgressive (pre-order/save). You can find Jacklin on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
