Melbourne, Australia’s Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever are headed Sideways to New Italy, with Sub Pop set to release the “tough pop / soft punk” act’s second album on June 5. Arriving alongside its announcement is the video for second single “She’s There,” which follows the February release of “Cars in Space.”
Sideways to New Italy takes inspiration and its name from New Italy, a tiny, 200-person village near New South Wales’ Northern Rivers, the area from which Rolling Blackouts C.F. drummer Marcel Tussie hails. Feeling dislocated after touring the world in support of their acclaimed Hope Downs, the quintet—singer-songwriter-guitarists Tom Russo, Joe White and Fran Keaney, bassist Joe Russo and Tussie—went back to their roots, revisiting their pasts so as to find the strength and sense of purpose to forge a new future.
“I wanted to write songs that I could use as some sort of bedrock of hopefulness to stand on, something to be proud of,” says Keaney. “A lot of the songs on the new record are reaching forward and trying to imagine an idyll of home and love.” That idyll wouldn’t exist without the people it comprises, though: “We tried to make these little nods to our friends and loved ones, to stay loyal to our old selves,” Russo adds.
“She’s There” is a driving, guitar-forward track that imbues Rolling Blackouts C.F.’s brawny, deftly melodic rock with a newfound wisdom. The song concerns “love and heavy delusions,” per a press release, with Russo singing, “Stuck on the edge, she said / Time it’s a river / Only one way, down together,” his lyrics evoking the imperfect evanescence of human connection. Time won’t slow for our regrets, or double back for another pass at a missed opportunity—all we can do is make the most of each moment. “All my accidents breathe in time,” repeats Russo as the song winds down.
The single is accompanied by a rustic, subtly strange, Nick McKinlay-directed video, shot at the Coburg Motor Inn in Melbourne. “We tried to convey that feeling in a dream where you need to be somewhere, and you don’t really know why, but you are determined to overcome every obstacle to get there,” say the band.
Sideways to New Italy follows Rolling Blackouts C.F.’s aforementioned debut album Hope Downs (one of 2018’s best records, according to Paste) and their 2019 7” single “In The Capital” / “Read My Mind.” “Cars in Space” was their first new release of 2020.
Watch the video for “She’s There” below and find the details of Sideways to New Italy further down. You can preorder the album via Sub Pop right here.
Sideways to New Italy Tracklist:
01.The Second Of The First
02. Falling Thunder
03. She’s There
04. Beautiful Steven
05. The Only One
06. Cars In Space
07. Cameo
08. Not Tonight
09. Sunglasses At The Wedding
10. The Cool Change
Sideways to New Italy Album Art:
![RBCF-STNIArt.jpg]()