Kitchener, ON-hailing singer-songwriter JJ Wilde has announced her forthcoming new album, previewed today by new single "Options."
Vices is due September 20 via Black Box Recordings. It's the follow-up to the artist's last full-length record, 2020's Ruthless, and compiles the tracks from her latest EP Best of Me (Part 1) for a 10-track collection.
"This album is the album I said I would never make," Wilde admitted in a statement. "I always said that I would never put a relationship before music or myself and then I went and got completely lost in someone. The amount of emotional, personal and mental growth that this album has brought forward for me is massive. It's the breakup album I swore I wouldn't write. But I got dumped before a two-month tour across the States, and that was the catalyst to go deeper into my most vulnerable places, and heal."
She continued:
I've always had sort of a hard shell and a wall up when it comes to how far I let people in and what I share in my music. I think I had an idea of what people wanted to hear from me. Or what I was supposed to be as a woman in rock music. This album completely tears down that wall to expose a softer side.
After being lost in the pursuit of someone, I found myself again while writing this album. I took a road trip that took me across America where I packed my VW and didn't come back for three months, waking up in a new city and deciding that day where to go next. I stayed on the road for almost an entire year touring around the world. I moved from Ontario to Nashville. I began performing sober for the first time in my life. Each writing session felt like it was unlocking a new sense of hurt that led to healing. There's so many different beautiful things that come from true heartbreak. And I don't think I have ever felt hurt like this.
Conversely, latest track "Options" is a country-tinged rocker that playfully revels in endless possibilities — listen below, where you'll also find the full album tracklist.
In addition to playing a bunch of festival gigs this summer, Wilde will embark on a North American tour this fall.
Vices:
1. Arizona
2. Best of Me
3. Options
4. Hands
5. Say
6. Bad Side
7. Mess to Make
8. Toxic
9. Takes Me Back
10. Perfect Stranger