Ziggy Alberts – New Love

Ziggy Alberts has established himself as one of Australia’s most beloved singer-songwriters. His 2015 single Runaway may have propelled him toward stardom, but Alberts has never been overly concerned with fame and fortune, instead focusing on staying true to his craft. Over the past decade, he has released six studio albums, each entirely self-written and without the backing of a major record label. The newest addition to his catalogue, New Love, is no exception. Despite having hundreds of thousands of supporters worldwide, Alberts remains gracious, humble and sincere, staying committed to heartfelt lyricism and delicate folk-inspired production alongside his longtime artistic partner, Garrett Kato.

New Love is truly Ziggy Alberts’s diary. Two simple yet thematically significant poems appear in the LP, while the other ten songs unfold as a stream of consciousness. Each moment explores a different facet of love, yet Alberts’s primary inspiration, the ocean, is hard to ignore.

In the first and second verses of the title track, for example, he compares his emotions first to a river blocked by a dam, then to a river flowing into a vast ocean. In the chorus of I’m With You, he declares himself ready to give his heart to the sea, representing that he is ready to let himself love again. Conversely, in Feeling Blue, Alberts describes being consumed by relentless currents and intertwines his emotions with war themes, making it one of the rare moments where he views his muse negatively.

Across just four songs, Alberts illustrates the water’s multifaceted nature. In Learn Yourself, he acknowledges this influence outright, admitting he has no choice but to keep it at the forefront of his mind. Labelling the ocean “poetry in motion”, he ultimately ties the first half of the album into a cohesive narrative.

Where the first segment of New Love is introduced by the poem Flowers Bathed in Sunlight, with birds chirping faintly in the background as Alberts expresses his admiration for nature, Responsibility of The Dreamer does the same – only now, morning has turned to night, with crickets trilling and a fire crackling in the distance. Despite no major shifts in production, this marks a turning point for the album.

Outlaw marks the first instance of Alberts straying from the open water. It serves as something of a sister track to I’m With You, as both centre on the singer’s desire to become a better person in the name of love. Addicted and Confessions stand out as the strongest tracks on the record. Though each song employs different extended metaphors, they converge to depict passionate romance rather than the broader forms of love Alberts explored earlier in the album. Addicted skillfully weaves multiple conceits while anchoring them under the central comparison of a great love to an addictive substance. Confessions reintroduces nautical motifs but also hyperbolically equates love to the power of religion.

The album’s final moment, Singing for Country, is as lyrically dense as Addicted and Confessions. Grounded yet profound, it ties together nearly every theme from the record, using beach imagery and a subtle piano accompaniment to bring New Love to a close.

Overall, New Love reinforces Ziggy Alberts’s status as a vivid storyteller, seamlessly blending themes of love, nature and self-exploration with evocative songwriting and stripped-back folk production. His ability to craft a journey that is both vulnerable and universally resonant makes it not only a testament to his unwavering dedication to authenticity but also a compelling addition to his discography.

Taryn Crowley

New Love is released on 21^st February 2025. For further information or to order the album visit Ziggy Alberts’s website here.

Watch the video for New Love here: