Relocated Australian singer/songwriter Imogen Clark previews her forthcoming album Choking On Fuel with a reflection on what might have been – if she hadn’t left home…

Release Date:  25^th April 2025

Label: Self Release

Formats: Digital

CHOKING ON FUEL

Squinters, the new single from ex-Sydneysider – now happy Nashvillian – Imogen Clark is our first preview of her forthcoming new album.  Choking On Fuel, as the album is to be titled, will be with us at the end of May. It’ll be a collection of reimagined versions of the songs that appeared on Imogen’s 2024 album, The Art of Getting Through.

Imogen Clark hasn’t appeared within these pages since we were charmed by her 2023 Christmas Single, Not Christmas Here, in which she looked forward – not without considerable trepidation – towards her first Northern Hemisphere Christmas.  Not that she hasn’t been busy during those intervening months. As well as recording and releasing The Art Of Getting Through, she’s been touring extensively. She’s been a headlining act and also with the likes of Robyn Hitchcock, Steve Poltz, BOWEN * YOUNG and Andrew Farriss.

And, after all that frenzied activity, it’s probably not too much of a surprise to learn that Choking on Fuel, sees a return to Imogen’s acoustic, singer/songwriter roots.

SQUINTERS

Speaking of Squinters, this first taste of the new album, Imogen says: “This song is the road not taken, the life I would have lived if I’d never left my hometown.  Steve Poltz and I met at a festival we were both playing and [we] wrote this song back in Nashville.  It came out like a waterfall, in record time.  When I play it live, people laugh at some lines and I can see the sadness of recognition in some people’s eyes.  The great Bryan Sutton made it feel tragic and delicate with his acoustic guitar parts and I made my glockenspiel debut on the solo.”

Bryan’s acoustic guitars are, indeed a striking feature of Squinters. As is the discrete organ that provides the soothing counterpoint.  But, as always with an Imogen Clark song, it’s that pure, soaring voice of hers that really captures the listener’s attention.  The lyrics are excellent too. It isn’t hard to imagine why lines like: “Here I am in the drive-through, with a shake and a loose screw” and, particularly, “Now I’m stuck in the suburbs; I guess we should have used rubbers.  I’m trying not to feel smothered, but I can feel you kick,” generated the emotions that Imogen describes.

THE GLOCKENSPIEL…

As for the homesickness for the land down under that Imogen left behind to start her new life Stateside. I guess that’s captured best in the song’s refrain: “All the summers are winters in disguise.”

And that glockenspiel solo is fun, too!

Watch the official video to Squinters below:

Imogen Clark online: Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / YouTube / Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music

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