(Warner)
The Gamilaraay musician’s second album is filled with light and shade, resilience and humour – though it doesn’t quite match the highs of her debut

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For Thelma Plum, fury and care are two sides of the same coin. With her 2019 debut album Better in Blak, the Gamilaraay singer-songwriter announced herself and her views in ways both defiant and tender. In 2022, she released the EP Meanjin, a warmly nostalgic love letter to her hometown of Brisbane.

Plum’s second full-length album – released on the cusp of her 30th birthday – leans into the rage while retaining her signature sensitivity. Its instrumentation is lush and expansive, bringing in strings (I Don’t Play That Song Anymore) and layered vocal arrangements that become almost instrumental themselves (Wiseman, Freckles). There are flirtations with other genres, too – Nobody’s Baby is an up-tempo disco track, replete with whistles.