Jen Cloher Cuts Deep On Striking New Single ‘Annabelle’

Ahead of their fast-approaching headline tour of Australia (which kicks off next week with a special Vivid LIVE show), Jen Cloher has shared a cutting new single called Annabelle.

READ MORE: How Queerness Came To Define The Modern Music World

It comes as the first song to follow Cloher’s career-defining fifth album – I Am The River, The River Is Me, which arrived (and was promptly met with widespread acclaim) last March – and reunites them with producer Tom Healy. Things start off lowkey and unassuming, but as a press release so-aptly puts it, the song progressively grows into “a deranged, fuzzed out wall of sound”.

Lyrically, the narrative driving Annabelle is said to follow someone “who is undone by her need to win at all costs”. It’s explained that Cloher was driven to spark a discussion around the ways that white feminism – “a movement that has viewed gender equality as the accumulation of individual power rather than the liberation of all people from oppressive systems,” as it’s described in the aforementioned presser – is prioritised in modern discourse.

Annabelle arrives with a music video co-directed by Cloher and Claire Giuffre, based on an original concept conceived by Cloher – and marking their directorial debut – with a stellar cast including Gabrielle Bradbeer, Esther Henderson, Nathalie Pavlovic and Melissa Fulton. Have a look at the gripping clip below:

Cloher’s latest trek of Australia will kick off at Machine Hall in Sydney (Gadigal) next Thursday (June 6), with their intimate show coming as part of this year’s Vivid LIVE program. They’ll follow it up with shows in Port Kembla (Dharawal), Mullumbimby (Bundjalung), Hepburn Springs (Dja Dja Wurrung), Melbourne (Naarm) and Adelaide (Kaurna) throughout the rest of June, then wrap things up in Meeniyan (Gunaikurnai) in late July – head here for info and tickets for all dates.