Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever Announce New Album
Ivy League Records is incredibly proud to announce the release of Hope Downs – the highly-anticipated debut album from renowned Melbourne outfit Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. The record, an undeniably rich and sophisticated collection of passionate guitar pop, is out Friday 15 June in digital, CD & vinyl formats. To coincide with the album announcement, the band have revealed their next single Talking Straight and its accompanying video.
The news comes off the back of a run of sold-out shows in Sydney and Melbourne over the weekend, and on the eve of the band’s huge international North American & European tour, which includes festival performances at Coachella, Shaky Knees, The Great Escape, Primavera, Lowlands, Pukklepop & more.
Fittingly recorded in a house in the middle of the northern NSW bush, new single Talking Straight hits hard with its driving rhythm and melodic, interweaving guitars, while reflecting on the loneliness of being a small person in a big universe.
In singer/songwriter/guitarist Joe White’s own words:
“The concept came about when I heard someone talking about the possibility of us, humans, being alone in the universe, and how sad that would be. The idea in this song is that we might be lonely, but we could be lonely together.”
Talking Straight, premiered via triple j, marks the second release of new music from the band for 2018. Previous single Mainland saw the band receive support from the likes of Pitchfork, Stereogum and DIY Mag, as well as high rotation from triple j and community radio alike.
The debut album Hope Downs was largely written over the past year in the band’s Melbourne rehearsal room, where their previous releases were also written and recorded. The band’s core trio of songwriters — Fran Keaney, Joe White, and Tom Russo — hunkered down and wrote as the chaos of the world outside unavoidably seeped into the song writing process. “We were feeling like we were in a moment where the sands were shifting and the world was getting a lot weirder. There was a general sense that things were coming apart at the seams and people around us were too”. Russo explains. “The songs on this album are like a collection of postcards about wider things that were going on through the lens of these small characters.”
The album title, taken from the name of a vast open cut mine in the middle of Australia, refers to the feeling of “standing at the edge of the void of the big unknown, and finding something to hold on to.”
Indeed, Hope Downs possesses a robust full-band sound that’s all the more impressive considering the band’s studio avoidance tendencies. Fans of Talk Tight and The French Press certainly won’t be disappointed here, but might also be surprised at how the band’s sound has grown.
Hope Downs track list:
An Air Conditioned Man
Talking Straight
Mainland
Time In Common
Sister’s Jeans
Bellarine
Cappuccino City
Exclusive Grave
How Long?
The Hammer
Hope Downs Album
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
Out Friday 15 June through Ivy League
Available for pre-order here
