Australian singer/songwriter Julia Jacklin is releasing a new album, The Gem, on September 25th via 4AD. Now she has shared its third single, “The Hardest Thing” via a music video where she performs on top of a skyscraper. The fourth studio album from Julia Jacklin, “The Gem“, and marks the Australian musician’s debut release on 4AD. “The Gem” was produced by Jacklin and Robert Muinos and recorded entirely in Melbourne. First single “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.
Previously Jacklin shared The Gem’s first single, “Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You Soon),” via a self-directed music video. Then she shared its second single, album closer “I Wish,” Jacklin recently announced that she’d signed a worldwide deal with the iconic British label 4AD and also announced some 2026 and 2027 tour dates, including some North American ones this fall.
Jacklin produced the album with Robert Muinos and it was recorded entirely in Melbourne. In 2017 she moved to the city from Sydney. She knew hardly anyone in Melbourne and started hanging out in a pub called The Gem. Muinos, described as an old drinking buddy, is the owner of Rat Shack studios, which is above The Gem. There Jacklin teamed up with Jacob Diamond (guitar), Mimi Gilbert (bass), and Jess Elwood (drums) to record the album.
Previous Jacklin albums were knocked out in a couple of weeks, but she labored over this one for nearly a year.
“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,” says Jacklin in a press release.
Of the main theme of “The Gem”, Jacklin adds: “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.”
Jacklin’s last album was 2022’s “Pre Pleasure”, released via Polyvinyl. It followed 2019’s acclaimed “Crushing” and 2016’s “Don’t Let the Kids Win“.
Jacklin is also in the band Phantastic Ferniture. They released two new songs—“Change My Mind” and “Dare to Fall in Love”—in 2025.
“The Gem” Due Out September 25 via 4AD
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