Tash Sultana<\/a> is surrounded by omens. A rainbow cuts through clouds, a feather hovers along a drafty sidewalk, and butterflies loiter alongside dragonflies over unruly flower beds. After a period of immense loss, Sultana sees each of these occurrences as reminders that their loved ones are near and amid the grief, good things are to come.<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cThe events that occurred over the last two years were the hardest time of my life,\u201d the singer tells Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cSo hard that it honestly almost killed me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tAround four years after the release of 2021\u2019s acclaimed and ARIA chart-topper, Terra Firma, <\/em>through their own label Lonely Lands Records, Sultana was hit by a series of unrelenting tragedies. Sitting propped up on a white pillow from their home in Australia, Sultana evenly details the losses: their wife, who had been diagnosed with cancer, underwent a botched surgery; while she prepared for another surgery, Sultana lost both their terminally ill cousin and aunt, who had choked to death; three of their dogs were bitten by a snake and two died in their arms; their grandfather died on a Wednesday and their other dog died on a Sunday. As ticket sales faltered and the singer plummeted into financial ruin, Sultana asked: \u201cWhat am I doing? Where am I going?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tWhile most days it was grueling to take on the daily tasks \u2014 getting up, eating, showering, brushing their hair \u2014 Sultana pushed themselves to walk through the doors of their Melbourne studio, which they had bought following the success of their 2016 breakthrough single \u201cJungle.\u201d Sultana calls it \u201cthe only place I can go that makes me feel normal.\u201d Somedays they put in 10 percent effort, other days would be more fruitful, but it all added up. And Sultana rebuilt their life over the course of those two years, the hours and days that would eventually culminate in their third studio album, Sonic Alchemy<\/em>, poised to land Feb. 19.<\/p>\n\n\tThe album cover, reminiscent of Pink Floyd\u2019s The Dark Side of the Moon<\/em>, depicts a clear potion bottle, \u201cthe alchemy,\u201d awash against hues of blue, and a beam of white light shooting through it, emerging as a spectrum of colors on the other side as the other omens (a dragonfly and a butterfly caught in mist, a feather attached to a gold chain with a smoking skull), \u201cthe record,\u201d adorn the frame.<\/p>\n\n\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tLeaving no room for misconception, Sultana states that the LP is \u201ccompletely based upon my personal life\u201d and about \u201closing everything that you thought mattered and you identified with \u2014 and pulling yourself out of it and starting again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\tThe collection spans 11 songs anchored by Sultana\u2019s exhilarating octave range and signature rippling loops that settle into every guitar note, drum beat, and lyric as they move unhurried through the human experiences of (but hardly limited to) love, loss, lust, envy, and joy. Perhaps because of this concerted baring of the soul, Sultana decidedly kept the album \u201canti-AI\u201d and \u201cproper old school,\u201d reaching to Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin\u2019s Jimmy Page for inspiration and hunting down the original guitars, basses, drums, and microphones that they used to evoke their eras\u2019 distinct soundscapes.<\/p>\n
\n\tOn lead track, \u201cSomething in the Water,\u201d Sultana calls attention and sings, \u201cthe signs are all around if we wanna let them in\/If you can feel, then you can heal and start all over again.\u201d Examining the song, they designate it as the album\u2019s \u201ctone-setter,\u201d adding, \u201cI\u2019m back, shit\u2019s been fucked, but I\u2019m good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAdjacently, their newly debuted single, \u201cDon\u2019t Know Why,\u201d was penned after Sultana says they lost everything but their wife and the four walls of their house. \u201cThat\u2019s a vulnerable track for me,\u201d says the musician. \u201cI found it really hard to sing it. You can hear points of it where I\u2019m trying to keep it together, voice cracking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n\n\n