Naarm/Melbourne-based folk chameleon JESS RIBEIRO (she/her) today unveils her highly anticipated fourth album Summer of Love and announces the Summer of Love album tour for this May, June and July, including the previously announced Friendship Tour co-headline with Leah Senior. Featuring the singles ‘Summer of Love’, ‘Everything Is Now’, ‘Jump The Gun’ and focus track ‘Maybe If I Wore Sunglasses Inside I Won’t Feel Tired’, Summer of Love traverses love, loss and healing with a masterful intimacy that holds you close from the very first listen.
Thur 23 May – Mapleton Pub – Gubbi Gubbi Country/Mapleton
Fri 24 May – Season Three – Meanjin/Brisbane
Sat 25 May – Eltham Pub – Bundjalung Country/Eltham
Sat 22 June – The Great Club – Eora/Sydney
Sun 23 June – La La La’s – Dharawal/Wollongong
Fri 28 June – Brunswick Ballroom – Naarm/Melbourne
Sat 29 June – Tanswell’s Hotel – Yorta Yorta Country/Beechworth
Sat 6 July – Bridge Hotel – Dja Dja Wurrung/Castlemaine
An endearing song of stillness, album opener ‘Maybe If I Wore Sunglasses Inside I Won’t Feel Tired’ is a meditation on the melancholy while lyrically steeped in deadpan humour, bringing Big Lebowski energy to Naarm’s endless lockdowns – robe and slippers on, sunglasses on, white russian in hand, just … waiting. Across the rest Summer of Love, Ribeiro excavates primal yearnings for nature (‘Everything Is Now’), restlessness in all its forms, the positive anticipation for something and its darker corners (‘The Trees and Me’, ‘Helicopter’, ‘Wake In Fright’), tiny snatches of love (‘Paradise’), tending to the inanimate like gardens (‘Airborne’), the endless chatter of impulsive minds (‘Jump The Gun’), and the ambiguous grief that comes with losing a close friend (‘Summer of Love’). After toying with a few options, Summer Of Love eventually became the album’s title “as I feel like that’s what the world needs, regardless of the season, we need good vibes with each other,” Ribeiro shares.
Jess Ribeiro is a shape-shifting musical enigma – the near-untouchable quality of her recorded output is astonishingly consistent. Across three critically-acclaimed albums – LOVE HATE (2019), Kill It Yourself (2015), My Little River (2012) – Ribeiro crossed genre boundaries to create bodies of work that cemented her as one of so-called-Australia’s most unique voices in songwriting and storytelling. Across catalogue and Summer of Love, Ribeiro has received widespread support from NPR, The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, The Monthly, Sydney Morning Herald, Rolling Stone, triple j, Feature Album on Double J, ABC RN (+Album of the Year) and Triple R among others, with wins and nominations from the Australian Music Prize, Music Victoria Awards, AIR Awards and the Environmental Music Prize (for her 2022 single ‘In Love With This Place’).