Stella Donnelly returned with the slow-burning album “Love And Fortune” this year, a tender, and gorgeous record concerned with the parting of a friend. Perhaps the best song is “Year of Trouble”, it’s a moving and heart breaking moment from the Melbourne artist. Accompanied by just an isolated piano, Donnelly’s vocal performance is absolutely gorgeous, laying her heart on the line; her tone is absolutely exquisite, warm and compassionate, yet wistful and longing, as she intimately charts the last days of parting. Donnelly says she “almost turned [the song] into a sad dancefloor moment but decided to keep it real for the feels. Maybe there’ll be a remix one day.”
“Since you closed off to me/ I’ve been on a lonely ride,” she sings with a lump in the throat inducing quiver, one can hear and feel the pain as she reaches for a high note pushing her voice to the edge of break, it’s a stunning vocal performance and one of the best tracks I have heard this year.
Stella Donnelly has returned with a deeply personal and anchored album, a body of work that traces the journey back to herself after a period of profound change. Recorded in Naarm/Melbourne, the album carries the grounding energy of place, offering a sonic landscape that feels both intimate and expansive. Joining Donnelly on the record are longtime collaborators and friends Marcel Tussie, Sophie Ozard, Julia Wallace, Timothy Harvey, and Ellie Mason, whose playing brings a looseness and vitality to the music, holding space for Donnelly’s voice to shine in its most tender and unguarded forms.
The songs on “Love or Fortune” gnawed away at Stella Donnelly; they wouldn’t leave her alone, they had to be written. They distil the sheer depth of her song writing, the recognition that sometimes less is more, the purity of her voice, which can turn tiny moments and subtle shifts in a day into ones that can eventually change a life. It’s also proof that sometimes taking your time can offer rewards. It’s a sterling showcase for her indefinable ability to turn trauma into triumph, the feeling of being lost into finding yourself again, one note at a time.
released November 7th, 2025
Written, composed and performed by Stella Donnelly
The Fat Angel Sings 