In a lot of ways, ‘Hard Truths’ was the album that almost never was. Production started at the beginning of 2020 but before it could gain momentum, Melbourne was thrown into one of the world’s longest lockdowns, leaving the band to adapt and record horns and strings remotely in Tasmania. Post lockdowns, with the local music scene in ruins, the band slowly rebuilt and finally felt ready to revisit the record.

The turmoil of the world seemed to reflect the inner turmoil of songwriter and front woman Shannen Wick who used the record as a way to process “heartbreak and the declining state of the world” and take a wholly “unfiltered approach” to songwriting – an approach evident from the first note of this dynamic and spectacularly honest album.

Listening to ‘Hard Truths’ Fulton Street fans can expect to find grooving bass and guitar riffs, warm melodic organ, bright horn arrangements, soaring strings and – of course – powerhouse vocal performances.

The tone of the record is immediately set with the opening track ‘A Woman Scorned’, an instrumental that encapsulates the scoring of iconic Blaxploitation films. From there ‘Hard Truths’ explores the often misunderstood lens of female rage, with its premier single ‘Disappointment’ where Wick growls, “If I wanted a disappointment, I would’ve stayed with my last man.”

‘Hard Truths’ isn’t one note, however, with songs like ‘Weight of the World’ and ‘Mama’s Eyes’ that embody Fulton Street’s signature storytelling, as the record explores themes of family, migration and finding home. The album manages to be both musically playful and achingly real.