https://www.rrr.org.au/subscriber-giveaways/bleak-squad-strange-loveCloses 31 August 2025, 11 pm
Win a copy of Strange Love AOTW
Strange Love is the debut from local four-piece Bleak Squad, a meeting of art-rock royalty. There's Mick Harvey from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and The Birthday Party, Mick Turner from Dirty Three, Adalita Srsen from Magic Dirt, and Marty Brown from Art of Fighting. The nine-track album captures what Brown calls an "uncomplicated and instantaneous" approach to making music together.
The whole thing started at Fitzroy pool, where Brown was lamenting not playing drums enough. He decided to ring everyone on the spot, and soon they were all recording at Head Gap studios with engineer Rohan Sforcina. As Brown puts it: "We played the songs one time to teach others the bits, then we'd record the second take. A lot of Strange Love is that second take."
Musically, there's a brooding undercurrent, driven by Brown's rhythms. Harvey's basslines weave through Turner's distinctive guitar textures and organ drones, while Adalita and Harvey trade off and share vocals. Lyrics deal with love gone wrong and hope put on hold.
'Lost My Head' kicks off with spare rock arrangements that gradually fill out as they develop. The title track and 'Everything Must Change' follow similar paths, starting minimal before building into what the band describes as "swampy swagger." 'Blue Signs' explores a more lonesome mood, approaching what Adalita calls "celestial depression."
For Adalita, this is her first band project outside Magic Dirt and solo recording, working with musicians she's "always looked up to." Adalita says the band name captures both their status as a "loose collection of misfits" and their noirish sound.
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