Jessica O'Donoghue • Rise Up [LP]

Combining industrial electronics, rich vocal harmonies, warm synths and operatic influences, Rise Up is without a doubt O’Donoghue’s most ambitious release to date. With production from Alyx Dennison (of Kyü) and engineer David Trumpanis (Sarah Blasko, Seeker Lover Keeper, The Voice), O’Donoghue continues to haunt audiences and critics alike – putting her as a pioneer of her own brand of post-baroque dramatic pop. 

“This album is really about a woman’s journey,” begins O’Donoghue. “It goes from hopes, dreams and promises to dark times, challenges, sacrifices and doubting/questioning to acceptance, nurturing and healing, to celebrating and honouring the feminine story and experience. It is a journey of drawing from darkness to drawing from light, a letting go and a rising up that brings with it immense depth and knowledge from past experiences. It is about honouring and celebrating all that the woman is and represents; softness, beauty, fierce power and the ability to hold and nurture the world and everyone in it. It is deep and mysterious, yet illuminous and uplifting.”

Driven by drums and slow droning synth, Let It Flow is possibly the most direct track on Rise Up. Stripped of effects and productive layering, Let It Flow contrasts much of the album by adhering to deep drumming and murmuring synths to create compositional clarity. Violins interject underneath layered vocals, cut between synths in a way that mirrors pop conventions - although never succumbing to them completely.

Serene in some moments, relentless in others – Rise Up crafts a strange beauty through otherworldly composition. O’Donoghue’s use of languages, vocalisations and vocal production allows her to create microcosms of emotion – all the while telling women’s stories and celebrating femininity through her music. 

As a recipient of the Top Performance Award at 2021’s APRA/AMCOS AMC Art Music Awards and an Australian Institute of Music Fellowship, O’Donoghue’s undeniable talent is only reinforced by her prestige, all of which culminates in the rich musicianship on display in Rise Up. Here marks the next big step in O’Donoghue’s unstoppable career – a truly outstanding piece of Australian music. 

Tracklist

01. Awakening
02. Good Grief
03. La Rosa
04. Rise Up
05. Rise Up: Cermony
06. Lullay My Liking
07. Let If Flow
08. Reawakening

Listen

Pressing info

180g colored vinyl pressed at dunk!pressing

Released on Art As Catharsis.