Josienne Clarke - Things I Didn't Need EP (2019)

Announcing a brand-new, standalone single by the award winning singer-songwriter and purveyor of melancholy Josienne Clarke.

Things I Didn’t Need is, in her own words “A love song to myself from the perspective of the fragile male ego; something I’ve come to know better than I’d care to.” In recording the single Josienne has shed the grandiose chamber-folk arrangements that characterised previous records, leaving the music the way it was written. With barely more than voice and the Twin Peaks-like echoes of her guitar, the focus is centred on the song.

This sparer sound uncovers the emotional rawness that’s always been at the core of her lyrics. It follows a year of listening intently to the women songwriters Josienne feels most affinity with, from Suzanne Vega to The Weather Station’s Tamara Lindeman to Phoebe Bridgers.

Things I Didn’t Need is accompanied by two new b-sides that further Josienne Clarke’s embracing of a less-is-more approach to her music and a resolve to sing it as she sees it. The Nick Drake-referencing Season and Time picks apart the frustration and futility in communicating through song; resigned to being misunderstood by its intended target. While the teasingly brief Never Lie acts as a response to the self-delusion of the a-side’s protagonist.

Uncut magazine raved about Josienne’s 2018 album Seedlings All, describing it as “Songs that reflect poetically upon insecurity, sacrifice, pride and hubris.” Mojo called the record “A beautiful slice of contemporary singer-songwriter craft that gently nods to a love of Sandy Denny.” While The Irish Times concluded that “Clarke’s writing is heartfelt, vulnerable, melancholic, expressive.”

A new album of misery, anger and longing for better will follow later in the year.