The fourth studio album from Julia Jacklin, ‘The Gem’, will be released on 25th September and marks the Australian musician’s debut release on 4AD. Today, she shares the first single, ‘Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You Soon)’ as well as details of a summer run of solo in-store performances in the UK and Ireland.
Premiered by triple j radio, ‘Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You Soon)’ is a bold and fun nod to eighties jangle rock and to the Melbourne sound she fell in love with. The single’s companion video created by Jacklin joyfully reimagines The Gem’s striking album cover art.
‘The Gem’ was produced by Jacklin and Robert Muinos and recorded entirely in Melbourne. The 10-track album will be released digitally and on CD, cassette and vinyl on 25th September worldwide. Exclusive colour vinyl editions with retailers will include Turquoise, Green Opal, Ruby, and Rose Quartz. For pre-order information head HERE.
In two weeks, Jacklin heads to the UK and Ireland for a solo tour of indie stores, offering fans the first chance to hear songs from ‘The Gem’ performed live. The in-store performances and signing sessions will take place in Dublin (Spindizzy. 28th June), Brighton (Resident, 29th June), London (Rough Trade East, 30th June), Liverpool (Jacaranda, 2nd July) and Nottingham (Rough Trade, 3rd July). Visit the retailers’ websites for further information. Tickets for the Resident Brighton show can be purchased HERE.
To celebrate the release of ‘The Gem’, Julia Jacklin will tour North America, UK and Europe beginning October 2026 and throughout 2027. A full list of dates can be found below. Tickets for all shows are now on sale, further information can be found HERE.
ABOUT ‘THE GEM’:
“I want to love and be loved, but I also want to be free. The tension between those two things has been the central question of my life,” says Jacklin. It’s also the theme that underpins ‘The Gem’.
When Jacklin first moved to Melbourne from Sydney in 2017, she discovered a little bar on a back street in Collingwood, where bands pushed dining tables to the side and set up in a corner on the floor. She didn’t know anyone in town but knew she wanted to make the city her home, so she started hanging out there, forcing herself out of her comfort zone. The pub was named ‘The Gem’.
Fast forward eight years and Jacklin, with three celebrated solo records under her belt – ‘Don’t Let The Kids Win’ (2016), ‘Crushing’ (2019), and ‘Pre Pleasure’ (2022) – was looking to make a fourth. With time on her hands – she was out of contract with her record label, and was searching for a manager – she decided to make the record at home in Melbourne, something she’d never done before.
She called up an old drinking buddy, Robert Muinos, owner of Rat Shack studios, which is located above ‘The Gem’, and brought in friends Jacob Diamond (guitar), Mimi Gilbert (bass), and Jess Elwood (drums). Recording happened in close quarters, in converted hotel room accommodation upstairs at the pub. As it was a residential bar, they couldn’t record late into the night for fear of bothering the neighbour and sound bleed was a glorious constraint: foot traffic to the hairdresser and the tattoo parlour next door, loud music from the bands and the kitchen crew downstairs. If anyone needed a break from the sessions, they would venture downstairs and watch a band playing. Jacklin and the band even played two unannounced shows there to try out the songs before recording them.
They thought they’d smash out the record in two weeks, like she’d always done, but that wasn’t the case. In fact, it took nearly a year of tinkering to arrive at something Jacklin could get behind. “‘The Gem’ felt like a metaphor for the whole process, because a lot of it did feel like digging. I felt like I was doing it almost in the dark, just trusting I was going to find something.” It conjures images of excavation, of reinvention, of trusting your instincts and surrounding yourself with the people and things that make life worthwhile. It’s a soaring document of the songwriter’s journey back to herself.
The band got matching tattoos on the last day of ‘The Gem’ sessions: a neat little circle to represent an opal – Jacklin’s favourite gemstone. Fittingly, one of the bartenders at The Gem did it. “It did really feel like we’d done something special together. And I think as a group, it felt important to commemorate it. I’m glad we all have these little gems on us.”
‘The Gem’ Tracklisting:
‘Brand New’
‘God Sometimes’
‘If I Had The Hand Of God’
‘The Hardest Thing’
‘Angel Vision’
‘Real Life’
‘Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You Soon)’
‘You Turned On The Tap’
‘Walk On Me’
‘I Wish’ [feat. The Maes]
Pre-order ‘The Gem’ HERE.
2027 UK & European tour dates:
13 February – BIRMINGHAM, UK, Town Hall
14 February – MANCHESTER, UK, Albert Hall
15 February – DUBLIN, IRELAND, National Stadium
17 February – GLASGOW, UK, Barrowland Ballroom
18 February – BRISTOL, UK, Beacon
19 February – LONDON, UK, Eventim Apollo
21 February – BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, Botanique
22 February – BERLIN, GERMANY, Festsaal Kreuzberg
23 February – HAMBURG, GERMANY, Kent Club
24 February – COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, DR Koncerthuset
26 February – AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS, Paradiso
27 February – PARIS, FRANCE, Cabaret Sauvage
1 March – BARCELONA, SPAIN, La [2] de Apolo
2 March – MADRID, SPAIN, Sala Mon Live
3 March – LISBON, PORTUGAL, LAV
