We Speak Pop
Jake River Announces Sophomore Album Endless Summer – due out June 16th via Nettwerk Records
Title Track & Official Music Video Featuring Genesis Owusu out Today – Listen/Watch HERE
“The singular artist and social advocate transforms tragedy and hope into sound and, ultimately, action.” – T The New York Times Style Magazine: Australia (Jack River Profile, January 11, 2023)
New York, NY – 9th February 2023 – Acclaimed Australian recording artist, Jack River (aka Holly Rankin) proudly announces today her highly anticipated sophomore album Endless Summer – due out June 16, 2023. The LP offers a world building view of the future. Written just prior to finding out she was expecting her first child, this record is an oasis, something to retreat to amid the apocalyptic horrors of climate disaster – and that was at the forefront of Rankin’s mind when she came to record Endless Summer.
“I wrote this album before I fell pregnant, but the reality of the ‘endless summer’ we are entering globally has become even more tactile for me after the birth of my child,” she says. “There is a part of the future beside me now, and she will experience the consequences of all the decisions we are making today. The experience of being pregnant and giving birth has made everything beautifully and awfully real. I think that sentiment plays out in this record.”
– Jack River
Along with today’s news Jack River is releasing the title track and official music video featuring the much loved and acclaimed Genesis Owusu. The single is an idyllic dreamscape duet and you can watch the video HERE. A psych-folk modernization of the Beach Boys’ layered, pastel fantasy world – Jack River co-wrote the track with Matt Mason (DMA’S) and co-produced with Matt Corby (Budjerah, Sia, Tash Sultana, Jarryd James), with Owusu sharing vocals.
“Mason had had the verse melody in his back pocket for years. As soon as he played it, I fell in love, and the scene of an endless summer was born in our minds. I brought the track to life with Matt Corby – we had so, so much fun layering vocals and finding sounds that kept the song minimal, but potent. Bringing Genesis on to join the track was a pipe dream that turned into reality. He brings his effortless brand of cool, calm and collected to the song.” – Jack River
An ode to long summer nights and the warped feeling of the melting times we are living in, the title track is about running away with the person you adore. It’s also the latest single from the forthcoming album to drop, following “Real Life” – the #1 most played track on triple j that received raves from The Guardian and NME – as well as “Nothing Has Changed” – a song that ushered in the news that Jack River would be taking a break to welcome her first child into the world. She now returns from that break with “Endless Summer” and news of the album drop.
With more than 66 Million streams and multiple Platinum and Gold singles, Jack River is a force to be reckoned with. Her debut album Sugar Mountain earned 3 ARIA Nominations and an APRA Nomination. Jack River has not only proven herself as a powerhouse musician, but as an agent for change. She spearheaded the “Our Soundtrack Our Stories” initiative alongside ARIA championing homegrown music, she played to 80K people in Sydney as part of a massive School Strike for Climate global event and she launched and hosted a podcast – To Rebel In The Times – that delved into impact, change and music through conversations with notable artists such as Portugal. The Man. Jack River embraces her passions, her truths, and her pain through Endless Summer; she is speeding toward her worth-the-wait sophomore album release; windows down, volume high, and sun kissing her face.

| Jack River – Endless Summer 1. Real Life 2. Lie In The Sun 3. Endless Summer (with Genesis Owusu) 4. Lucy Sea Queen 5. Honey 6. Lie To You 7. Nothing Has Changed 8. Paradise 9. Holy Men 10. Stranger’s Dream |
| Stay in touch with Jack River Official Web Site | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter |
We Speak Music
Phoebe June Traces Love, Distance and Heartbreak on New EP ‘Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate’
For Phoebe June, some stories are easier to tell through music.
Her new EP, ‘Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate’, is an intimate collection that traces the emotional journey of a relationship from the exhilaration of falling in love to distance, uncertainty, heartbreak and, ultimately, learning to let go.
Inspired by artists including Gracie Abrams, Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers, Phoebe June combines diary-like lyricism with melancholic ballads, subtle uptempo moments and an understated, emotionally honest production style.
At the centre of the project is ‘Thursday’, a bittersweet track about loving someone from a distance and holding onto the hope that the connection might survive.
Written after Phoebe left a country that held deep personal meaning, and left someone she cared about behind, the song looks back at the relationship from its beginning. Even its title is personal: the two first met on a Thursday.
The song captures the complicated feeling of walking away from something meaningful without believing that it necessarily has to be over. It’s about distance, memory and the possibility of finding your way back to someone, while recognising that hope only works when it goes both ways.
Across six tracks, the EP develops that story in sequence.
‘Everything You Are’ opens the project with the warmth of new love, while ‘Dead Sea’ explores the security of finding someone who helps you stay afloat through difficult times. As the story progresses, ‘Thursday’ introduces separation before ‘Getaway Car’ moves into the aftermath; unanswered questions, lingering attachment and the realisation that someone can profoundly affect your life while still being unhealthy for you.
‘One Day’ leaves the door open to the possibility of a future reunion, balancing hope with the understanding that some relationships may only exist in memory.
The EP closes with ‘Ophelia’, its emotional breaking point. Inspired in part by Friedrich Heyser’s painting of the same name, the track confronts the pain of feeling manipulated and unappreciated after giving everything to someone else.
The result is a project that deliberately moves from light to dark. Phoebe June considered not only the narrative but the emotional progression when sequencing the EP, allowing the brightness of its opening to gradually give way to the heartbreak of its closing moments.
Even the title reflects that feeling.
‘Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate’ takes its name from a flower, with the image of a gate separating two people becoming a metaphor for a love that remains beautiful but just out of reach. To reach over it requires effort, just as maintaining a connection across distance, uncertainty and changing circumstances does.
Ultimately, Phoebe June isn’t interested in simply documenting her own heartbreak.
She wants listeners to recognise themselves in it.
‘Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate’ is a collection about love, nostalgia, hope and regret and about what remains when something beautiful ends up on the other side of the gate.
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