Jill Lorean

Not Your First marks a bold leap forward, however, delivering perhaps her most formidable work to-date. Recorded, mixed and produced by Frightened Rabbit’s Andy Monaghan, the six-songs are full of swagger, Jill’s formidable voice wrapping itself into all manner of shapes amid an emphatic backdrop of spiky guitars and powersome drums" - GoldFlakePaint

"On Eyes on the Bird, the track that trailed the EP, it’s that voice that first demands attention, pure and keening over low droning noise and rattle. The ghost of Sandy Denny. And then 50 seconds in, there’s a deep bass rumble and we’ve moved into Led Zep territory. The result is deeply thrilling." - Teddy Jamieson, The Herald

"One of my 25 Scottish Artists to watch in 2022...I think she's on fire right now" - - Vic Galloway, BBC Radio Scotland

This Rock is the debut album from Glasgow trio Jill Lorean, following on exquisitely from their 2020 EP Not Your First, musing on nature, relationships, love, grief, motherhood and memory over frenetic, hypnotic drum beats and playful, subversive bass and guitar lines.

Jill Lorean as a living breathing thing, featuring Jill O’Sullivan (Sparrow And The Workshop, Three Queens in Mourning) in collaboration with Andy Monaghan (Frightened Rabbit) and drummer Peter Kelly, the band is a unique beast inhabiting its own world, incorporating elements of many genres from folk and lo-fi to post-punk and underground rock.

At its heart This Rock is a timeless rock record rooted expert musicianship, perfectly capturing that live band spirit while commenting on where we come from, where we live and how we interact with our surroundings, while maintaining a raw energy that cruises from the danceable freak folk of ‘Black Dog’ to hook laden ode to love songs ‘Walls’, all the while O’Sullivan’s unmistakable soothingly yet intoxicating vocal performance thrusts your attention front and centre.

Nature runs as a central vein through the record, taking a chance to disconnect from the sometimes disorienting digital world, taking step back and putting a lid on the noise and appreciating the natural world on ‘Beekeeper’, and then human nature on eerie pulsing of opener ‘Breaking Down’, which makes a statement on the meaning of freedom to different people.

Meanwhile, This Rock looks to generations of women, from childhood to granny-hood, from tracks inspired by O’Sullivan’s five-year-old daughter asking “what is war?” and how to broach such a dark subject matter with someone so young, to trying to capture that childlike spirit again on the urgent, powerful single ‘Mothers’, while ‘Kneading’ looks to Jill’s granny and her extraordinariness through some people’s unextraordinary lens.

“I like to feel surprised, I want people listening to it to feel alive and awake. And a lot of music feels a bit stale and gentle. And now you can say, Alexa, I would like some exercise music or I'm in a sad mood play me sad mood music. And I feel like, I just want to shake Alexa and be like, Alexa, fuck off. I just want people to listen to the music and feel a little bit stirred or slightly disturbed by it.

“’It’s quite simply a desire to spend more time in nature and appreciate how amazing it is. I grew up in a concrete jungle, Chicago is so urban. And even Glasgow with all the big tenements, there's not many trees. So in a way, I'm trying to imagine something a little bit different. Like, stop and look at the flowers, stop and reflect.

“It all comes back to effectively talking about motherhood, memory, human nature and grief to some degree. And This Rock, it's slightly this tongue in cheek idea of this kind of music, but also, the rock we live on, quite simply this rock.”