Only when we reach beyond the surface are we rewarded with a renewed sense of clarity.
After stripping back the layers to expose their own vulnerabilities, hopes, fears and passions, Floodlights have emerged with their third album, Underneath.
Heralding a collective metamorphosis for the five-piece, Underneath is the band’s most introspective work to date. Born from an intoxicating time of transience and new experiences – playing major festivals in Australia and abroad, connecting with new cultures and bringing their unflinchingly honest ruminations to more corners of the globe – Underneath was largely written on the road during an extensive tour which took them to the UK, Europe, around Australia and the US.
The creation of Underneath was an intimate process, marked by quiet, shared moments of contemplation. While on tour, the band found pockets of time to turn inward and write – transforming a Hackney rehearsal studio into spaces for creative release. ‘Melancholy Cave’, ‘Joy’ and ‘Horses Will Run’ took shape during these sessions, capturing the raw emotions and palpable sense of change that defines the album. Other tracks surfaced from places closer to home, in the grounding moments between. ‘Suburbia’, a harmonica-fuelled ode to the mysteries of our hidden internal lives, where being seen is not the same as being understood, was crafted from the solitude of Victoria’s Kennett River. Ahead of embarking on their 2023 tour came ‘5AM’, which captures the tangible feeling of anticipation – the liminal space – before what is still to come.
In ‘This Island’, Australia’s problematic and often contradictory national identity is laid bare, while ‘Melancholy Cave’ offers a candid reflection on society’s tendency to tear someone down while celebrating them only after they’re gone, inspired by the life of Sinead O’Connor. Underneath strikes a balance between the incisive reflections of society the band is renowned for and more personal meditations on grief, memory and place. The latter is found in ‘Horses Will Run’, written in Dublin during a moment of connecting with family heritage in the weeks before losing a relative, and ‘Joy’, a dual tribute to an ageing grandmother and the unrelenting, mountainous road to happiness in a world moving too fast to notice.
Produced by Dan Luscombe (AUS) and mixed by John Congleton (USA), Floodlights’ observations on their third offering traverse themes of ageing in ‘Buoyant’, overcoming fear and noise in ‘Alive (I Want to Feel)’, the turbulent nature of emotions in ‘Light Won’t Shine Forever’ and hope’s enduring flame in ‘Cloud Away’.
Brimming with vivid imagery and reflections on identity, change and belonging, Underneath is, at its core, an exploration of what it means to be human.
Release: March 21st, 2025, [PIAS] Recordings