Third records are never easy. Debuts are full of first time excitement, an accomplishment at presenting the first full synopsis of your sound - second offerings are often the things you might have done differently with the first or building upon a theme. But thirds…it’s often a space for experimentation, a new concept. It’s hard not to bend to the pressure from an existing listener base, who maybe already have an opinion about what your new work should sound like. If I’m honest, sometimes I am the most excited about these later records, these pockets of creativity that occur once an artist has sat with their sound for a long time, and really investigated what kind of musician they want to be. Gabi Garbutt’s Radical Love is a perfect example of this. Released in June via INH Records, it is their long awaited third album, and takes listeners on a journey through love in all it’s forms.

“I was writing my way through the chaos, and what emerged was a collection of songs where the resolution was found in different kinds of love” - Gabi Garbutt

There’s a softness to this record, an openness - it builds gently, laps like waves, strong in a way that is natural and easy rather than pushing in a way that is too driving or too intense. Backing vocals and synth lines add sweet layers like swirls of honey in tea. The music itself is a perfect accompaniment to the lyrical writing, allowing room for it to breathe and have the vocals take a lead. Inherently queer, the record takes us on a journey through incredibly intimate and genuine love, led purely by emotion rather than societal rules or pressures. It feels like letting go - like following the heart, and nothing less. The change in Garbutt’s sound from previous work seems to support this; there’s a vulnerability to this record that feels like wearing their heart on their sleeve, rather than striving to prove themselves to anyone. It feels less like a shift, and more like an expansion and maturing of the soundscape.

Tracks such as Never Danced So Much really capture the all-encompassing experience of queer love, with lyrics “I’ve never danced so much, I’ve never cried so much, I’ve never been so destroyed by a woman’s touch” encapsulating the highs and lows of intense and passionate relationships, where joy, turmoil and lust spill into one another. The album is not solely focused on romance however - Snaggletooth is a beautiful exploration of Garbutt’s younger self, accepting the existence of their inner child and honouring that part of themselves. Lightning Held is reminiscent of early 2000’s indie love songs, feeling like the lightheaded excitement of new connections and noticing emotions deepening. Strong themes of nature, animals, bodies of flesh and bone run through the lyrics of the whole record, both demonstrating the wild, awe inducing magnitude of love that hits like thunder, and also the natural, soft and un-interfered with reality of organic feeling. Garbutt always walks a line between predator and prey, rain and shelter, darkness and light from the bedside table lamp - Radical Love is a balancing act, an exploration of what shines through the cracks: of what can happen if you open your heart to it.

Follow Gabi Garbutt on instagram to keep up to date with gig announcements and more. They will be playing the next KNICKERS club on 31st July - get your tickets HERE

Gabi Garbutt - Radical Love