Orla Gartland - Everybody Needs a Hero (Gatefold Transparent Red Vinyl)

The second album from Dublin-born, London-based songwriter Orla Gartland, released on her own New Friends label. Following 2021's acclaimed Woman On The Internet, this is a bolder, more intentional record, co-produced by Gartland herself alongside Tom Stafford and Pete Miles, and it plays like an autopsy of a single relationship in all its mess and tenderness. Her razor-sharp pen is intact throughout, from the opening admission of Both Can Be True through the indie sleaze strut of Backseat Driver, the pop-punk rush of Kiss Ur Face Forever and the twitchy Declan McKenna collaboration Late To The Party. Themes of womanhood, ego and the push and pull of connection run through twelve tracks that veer from gentle acoustic poetry to full grunge power, often within the same song.