Acclaimed Melbourne-based singer/songwriter and musician Julia Jacklin will be releasing her highly-anticipated fourth album, the Robert Muiños and Jacklin co-produced, 10-song album The Gem through 4AD Records digitally and on CD, cassette and vinyl on September 25, 2026. Exclusive color vinyl editions with retailers will include turquoise, green opal, ruby and rose quartz. Pre-order information can be found here.
When Jacklin first moved to Melbourne from Sydney back in 2017, she discovered a little bar on a back street in Collingwood, a suburb just outside of downtown, where bands pushed dining tables to the side and set up in a corner on the floor. She didn’t know anyone in town, but knew she wanted to make the city home, so she started hanging out there, facing herself out of her comfort zone. That pub was named The Gem.
Eight years later, Jacklin had released three acclaimed albums, 2016’s Don’t Let The Kids Win, 2019’s Crushing and 2022’s PRE PLEASURE — and was looking to write and record her fourth. Her contract with her previous label had ended. She was searching for a manager. And with time on her hands, she decided that she would make her fourth album in Melbourne, something she’d never done before.
She called up an old drinking buddy Robert Muiños, owner of Rat Shack Studios, which is just above The Gem and brought in her friends Jacob Diamond (guitar), Mimi Gilbert (bass) and Jess Elwood (drums). Recording happened in close quarter, in converted hotel room accommodation upstairs at the pub. Because The Gem was in a residential neighborhood, they couldn’t record late into the night for fear of bothering neighbors and sound bleed for a glorious constant: foot traffic to the hairdressers and lotto parlor next door and loud music from the bands and the kitchen staff downstairs. But if anyone needed a break during the sessions, they would head downstairs and watch a local band play. Jacklin and her friends even played two unannounced shows there to try out the album’s material before recording them.
They thought they’d be able to finish the album in two weeks, like she’d always done previously, but this time that wasn’t the case. In fact, it took nearly a year of tinkering to arrive at something Jacklin could get behind, “The Gem felt like a metaphor for the whole process, because a lot of it did feel like digging. I felt like I was doing it almost in the dark, just trusting I was going to find something,” Jacklin says. While conjuring images of excavation, of reinvention, of trusting your instincts and surrounding yourself with the people and things that make life worthwhile, the album documents the songwriter’s journey back to herself.
“I want to love and be loved, but I also want to be free. The tension between those two things has been the central question of my life,” says Jacklin. That theme underpins the album’s material.
The Gem‘s first single, “Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You)” is mischievously charming and hooky bit of 80s inspired jangle pop that captures the neurotic yet yearning push and pull of a narrator, who can’t quite figure out yet how to be free and be loved simultaneously. And while informed by the songwriter’s own-lived in experience, the song is rooted in something that’s both universal and youthful.
The video created by Jacklin reimagines the album’s cover art with images of Jacklin singing and strumming her guitar, and gems on other instruments.
Jacklin will be supporting the new album with an extensive tour. She’ll finish June with a UK and Ireland solo tour of indie record stores. And in the fall, the acclaimed audience will return to the road with her band for an extensive North American, UK and European tour. The North American leg includes a November 20, 2026 stop at Brooklyn Paramount. Check out the tour dates below. More information, including tickets can be found here.
JULIA JACKLIN TOUR DATES
2026
June 28 – DUBLIN, IRELAND – Spindizzy*
June 29 – BRIGHTON, UK – Resident*
June 30 – LONDON, UK – Rough Trade East*
July 2 – LIVERPOOL, UK – Jacaranda*
July 3 – NOTTINGHAM, UK – Rough Trade*
October 20 – SAN DIEGO, CA, USA – The Observatory North Park
October 22 – LOS ANGELES, CA, USA – The Wiltern
October 23 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA – The Castro Theatre
October 26 – PORTLAND, OR, USA – Crystal Ballroom
October 27 – VANCOUVER, CANADA – Commodore Ballroom
October 28 – SEATTLE, WA, USA – The Moore Theatre
October 30 – SALT LAKE CITY, UT, USA – Metro Music Hall
October 31– DENVER, CO, USA – Gothic Theatre
November 2 – DALLAS, TX, USA – Studio at Bomb Factory
November 3 – AUSTIN, TX, USA – Radio/East
November 4 – HOUSTON, TX, USA – White Oak Music Hall (Downstairs)
November 6 – ATLANTA, GA, USA – Variety Playhouse
November 7 – NASHVILLE, TN, USA – Brooklyn Bowl
November 9 – CARRBORO, NC, USA – Cat’s Cradle
November 10 – WASHINGTON, D.C. USA – Lincoln Theatre
November 11 – PITTSBURGH, PAm USA – Mr. Small’s Theatre
November 13 – MINNEAPOLIS, MN, USA – First Avenue
November 14 – CHICAGO, IL, USA – The Riviera Theatre
November 15 – TORONTO, CANADA – Danforth Music Hall
November 17 – MONTREAL, CANADA – Théâtre Beanfield
November 19 – BROOKLYN, NY, USA – Brooklyn Paramount
November 20 – BOSTON, MA, USA – Royale
November 21 – PHILADELPHIA, PA, USA – Union Transfer
*solo performance + signing
2027
February 13 – BIRMINGHAM – UK, Town Hall
February 14 – MANCHESTER – UK, Albert Hall
February 15 – DUBLIN, IRELAND – National Stadium
February 17 – GLASGOW, UK – Barrowland Ballroom
February 18 – BRISTOL, UK – Beacon
February 19 – LONDON, UK – Eventim Apollo
February 21– BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – Le Botanique
February 22 – BERLIN, GERMANY – Festsaal Kreuzberg
February 23 – HAMBURG, GERMANY – Kent Club
February 24 – COPENHAGEN, DENMARK -DR Koncerthuset
February 26 – AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS – Paradiso
February 27 – PARIS, FRANCE – Cabaret Sauvage
March 1 – BARCELONA, SPAIN – La [2] de Apolo
March 2 – MADRID, SPAIN – Sala Mon Live
March 3 – LISBON, PORTUGAL – LAV
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