Ahead of the conclusion of her debut headlining tour, Jesse Jo Stark has released a new single titled “Fallout,” which comes on the back of her 2022 album Doomed.
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The heartfelt yet melancholy single is accompanied by a video which features footage of Stark performing the song on tour. “I really believe that we have to continue to fight for love and fight for each other,” Stark says in the beginning of the video, on stage with a guitar to a chorus of cheers from fans. “If I’ve learned anything at all,” she continues, “it’s to love hard. That’s what I have to offer that’s left.”
[RELATED: Jesse Jo Stark Reflects on Her Life in Recently Released Single, ‘Die Young’]
Stark gave previews of the song to her gathered fans at shows across the U.K., Europe, and North America during a headlining tour that began in August this year. Her debut full-length album, Doomed, dropped in September 2022, and “Fallout” is the first single since that release.
The song is a departure from her previous work. It’s almost entirely acoustic, giving way to an open-hearted sadness that is captured in the first lines: So as you know / this has been hell / I live in hell. She continues, Don’t tell me the truth / about me and you / just listen to me. It’s a raw, emotional intonation from Stark, employing her droning, almost frayed vocals in a way that presents a gloomy, pensive mournfulness.
The final U.S. date on her tour was on October 15. From there she will be headed to Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, and Thailand in November as support for Yungblud on his The World Tour.
Stark released her first EP, titled Down On Your Drain, in 2014, followed by the EP Dandelion in 2018 and the single “Die Young” in 2020. Her work on Doomed is similarly confessional, but with an electronic flavor and bad girl energy. The beats are slick, such as on “666 in the suburbs,” but there is an alt-rock undercurrent that feels like an anchor for the record, such as on the track “modern love.”
“It feels like my life’s work in one package,” Stark told Nylon of her album in 2022. “These [songs] just felt like they needed to be a part of the world. I was ready, and I’ve never been more in my body. I just went with my gut and it just felt time. … You never know what’s going to happen tomorrow. I’ve just been trying to lead with that.”
Commenting on the different emotions of each song on the album—which translate into cross-genre tracks that still feel cohesive—Stark said, “I don’t feel that we as people can belong to one feeling throughout the course of a day. You wake up and you end differently.” She continued, “I wanted [the album] to be cohesive, but I also said, ‘I want one song that you can dance to. I want one song you can cry to. I want one that you’re just fucking so pissed off.’”
Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images
