Cry Club’s third album High Voltage Anxiety is the beloved duo’s first self-recorded, self-produced, and self-engineered record, and is as vocalist Heather Riley describes, “truly the most ‘us’ we’ve ever sounded”.
Across its twelve tracks, the record moves through moments of tenderness and ferocity as Cry Club delve into the state of the world and what it means to be human. High Voltage Anxiety explores themes of wealth disparity, disagreeing with loved ones, activism, relationship breakdowns, artistic burnout, and the decline of media literacy and increasing spread of misinformation. Threading the record together through both its lighter and heavier moments is a fearless hope for a brighter future – “We are (as we’ve always been) so angry because we love and care about this world so much, and that love drives us to demand better from the people trying to do harm to what we’ve all built,” says Riley.
“Another big political touchpoint on this album is technofeudalism,” says Riley. “It’s no secret how terminally online Jono [Jonathon Tooke] and I are, and watching the digital spaces we’ve loved become cesspits of ragebait and engagement farming has taken a mental toll on us. It’s exhausting to open up literally every social media app and have it make you feel hopeless and angry every single day – I got a dumbphone for a while to escape it all, which was sick but ended up feeling isolating in a different way.”
Created in the duo’s now-signature industrial-pop sound, the record is a crucial listen with broad appeal, drawing inspiration from the disaffected irony of modern hyperpop, brash protest punk anthems of the 2000s, scathing disillusionment of 90s grunge and industrial rock, and the apocalyptic nuclear anxieties of 1950s sci-fi.
Over the past two years, Cry Club have ventured overseas for their debut European tour, joined iconic UK rockers The Darkness on their Australian tour, supported the likes of WAAX, FAKER, and Stand Atlantic, and created some of their most innovative and impactful music yet. Throughout their time as a band, Cry Club have cemented themselves as one of the most exciting and original acts in the country.
Release: March 29, 2026, Independent