Hayley Mary has officially announced her debut studio album as a solo artist, entitled Roman XS. The album is set for independent release on Friday, October 25th, and marks Mary’s first full-length album since The Jezabels‘ third and seemingly final album, 2016’s Synthia. Roman XS was pre-empted by the release of two singles earlier this year: ‘One Last Drag’ in April and ‘The Ballad of Ruby Wednesday’ last month.
Today (July 11th), Mary has shared a new single from the album to coincide with its announcement. ‘The Lonely One’, as Mary described it in a press release, was co-written with Confidence Man‘s Lewis Stephenson (AKA Reggie Goodchild) during a house party. “He had a few amazing demos that he thought would suit my 80s diva-style singing,” Mary recalled.
“We were jamming over this track, trying to flesh it out while everyone else was on the dancefloor. It gave me the feeling of driving down a highway away from heartbreak, sadly but triumphantly.” A music video has also been shared, directed by Richard Clifford, which can be viewed below.
Hayley Mary – ‘The Lonely One’
Stephenson served as one of four producers that worked on Roman XS – the others being Lachlan Mitchell, Mary’s husband Jonny Took (of DMA’s) and Mary herself. The Sydney-born and Melbourne-based singer-songwriter has described her debut solo album as “a wall-of-sound rock ‘n’ roll album, filled with neo-classic romantic songwriting and expansive layering”.
“It’s excessive to romanticise the diesel-guzzling 80s in the way this album does, and to litter it with gothic religious and pagan symbolism and hysteria to boot,” she said. “But, perhaps, in a way, it is also just reactionary punk in the age of musical minimalism.”
Further Reading
“I Still Have A Lot Of Respect For It” – The Jezabels’ Hayley Mary On Ten Years Of ‘Prisoner’
Love Letter To A Record: Hayley Mary On Cyndi Lauper’s ‘She’s So Unusual’
Scott Darlow Recruits The Jezabels’ Hayley Mary for New Single, Announces Tour Dates
