After touring relentlessly for a couple of years off the back of her previous record, 2022’s Flood, Stella Donnelly took a break from gigging to re-evaluate: should she even continue to indulge her musical passions?
Back in August, the Naarm-based, Boorloo-raised artist dropped some new tunes: a double A-side comprising Standing Ovation and Baths, the latter of which is a two-minute meditation – almost-a cappella over sustained, droning notes.
Donnelly first recorded the Baths vocal melody into her phone back in 2021, but it resurfaced more recently while she swam laps at Brunswick Baths. “I became fixated on how things sounded under the water,” she later recalled, “and began to think about all the sounds I would have heard from inside my mother.”
Keep up with the latest music news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
Opener Standing Ovation employs the same sonic palette of synth drone and pure vocals, until a perky guitar riff and jaunty drums enter around the halfway mark. Like two songs in one, it quickly amps-up to a jovial bop.
These stripped-back arrangements place Donnelly’s clear, bell-like vocals and intimate lyrics front and centre. “You’ll always be dear, my friend/ With your old lady hands…” – during her bittersweet breakup song Year Of Trouble, she takes accountability for the “lonely ride” on the other side.
(“You can’t…”) Please Everyone issues an important reminder, underscored by melodious birdsong (fun fact: Donnelly is an ambassador for 2025’s Backyard Bird Count, which starts 20 October).
Love And Fortune finds Donnelly discarding the weight of expectation to instead probe the beating heart of her artistry.
