Triumph and Sadness

Pre-Order Item. Release Date Subject to Change.
Label: Mr Bongo
Release Date: 16th October

Oz has the soul, baby. Ella Thompson's third album presents itself as the kind of vocal soul record that everybody needs in their collection. Backed by Australia's best soul and funk players with members of Karate Boogaloo and Surprise chef providing the backbone of super tight breaks, the funkiest basslines and all whilst Ella Thompson floats from sweet falsetto to a raw rasp and onto a rich smoothness to a sultry smokeyness. 

For those who dig: Jalen Ngonda, Kendra Morris, Charles Bradley, The College of Knowledge crew...

Standing up for joy and pain and all the messy, confusing, beautiful details that make
life worth living. Soulful and timeless, her songs tell stories of the heart, finding
universal truths in the honesty of personal experience.
Released on UK label Mr Bongo and College of Knowledge in Australia and New
Zealand, Triumph & Sadness is her most profound album yet - a powerful and unique
record inspired by a classic sweet soul sound and rooted in the contemporary
moment. Reaching out with vulnerability and poise, it is a plea for connection in a
world gone numb. Recorded over four fruitful days at an all- analogue studio in the
stunning natural surroundings of rural Victoria (with additional sessions for horns
vocals and overdubs at Sound Park in Northcote), Triumph & Sadness was cut direct-
to-tape with all the urgency and warmth of the iconic '60s and '70s sessions that first
inspired her. Written alongside Liam McGorry (Temporary Blessings), featuring
collaborators from bands Surprise Chef and Karate Boogaloo and mixed by Daptone
and The Womack Sisters collaborator Wayne Gordon, it captures the live energy of a
band at the top of their game.
Because it is through Melbourne's vibrant, supportive independent scene that
Thompson has found her voice. Coming up alongside contemporaries like Hiatus
Kaiyote, two solo releases followed in quick succession, the 7- track EP 'Domino' in
2023, and LP Ripple on the Wing in 2024, pushing the boundaries of the song form
and immersing herself in studio production, while building a creative community that
has in turn shaped her sound. Inspired by Australian soul singer Renee Geyer, who
blazed a trail across the country in the 1970s, and a wide tapestry of influences from
soul titans like Nina Simone and Curtis Mayfield, to the philosophical musings of Patti
Smith, Alice Walker and Simone Weil, Thompson takes the listener by the heart and
hand across the album's 10 shimmering songs.
Her belief in the significance of connection shines through on the album's thematic
centrepiece, 'Promise To Keep'. It is a track that feels at once profound and whimsical
in the best possible way, about building nerve, embracing naivety, bravery and love in
an act that Thompson likens to a renewed romanticism. Then there is 'Change of
Heart', which reflects on the temporality, impermanence and synchronicity of a
moment, and the bittersweet paradox where everything contains its opposite: absence
and presence, innocence and experience, triumph and sadness. Musically, it unfolds
as a down-tempo, slinky ballad with falsetto vocals, ending in triumphant horns that
signal the release of letting go. Drawing on the group vocal arrangements of bands
like The Royalettes, it is devastating in its simplicity.
And so, from 'My Weakness', which draws on the myth of Narcissus to question the
loops of recognition and unsated longing built into life under Capitalism, to the
bubbling intensity of 'Dandelion' whose contradiction between bitter taste and
beautiful flower inspires Thompson to ask what we fear by caring too much, Triumph
& Sadness weaves together threads that speak of life's great challenges. It is a
complete and compelling statement from an artist ready to connect with a global
audience for the first time.