Last month, Julia Jacklin announced her new album Pre Pleasure with the single "Lydia Wears a Cross." Today, the Australian musician returned with the album's second single titled "I Was Neon" along with a self-directed video with Jacklin dancing around a house, playing guitar, and swinging from a rope over a body of water.
"I Was Neon" is an upbeat rock song driven by eroded guitars and Jacklin's pearly vocals. Following her gutting 2019 full-length Crushing, it's hard not to understand the single as Jacklin strengthened post-heartache and weary to give herself away again. "Am I gonna lose myself again," she sings during the chorus, "I quite like the person that I am."
But the song's urgency is caught between excitement and anxiety. She sings the chorus with more confidence than unease, signaling that opening herself to others or to life's thrills is inevitable. "I was neon, I was the nearest door / I was the sign that said you’ve been here before," goes the opening line. "I Was Neon" acts as Jacklin's emotional focal point; even if she loses herself, she doesn't seem that concerned about finding a way back to herself.
It turns out Jacklin didn't initially write the single for her solo project. “I first wrote ‘I Was Neon’ for a band called Rattlesnack, a short-lived, much-loved 2019 side project that I played drums in," she explained. "I rewrote it for my album in Montreal, during a time when I was desperately longing for a version of myself that I feared was gone forever. I was thinking of this song when I made the album cover.”
Watch the video for "I Was Neon" below, and pre-order Pre Pleasure—out August 26 via Polyvinyl—here.
