MEG MAC — It's My Party
MATT CORBY — Tragic Magic
Records Of The Month - May 2026
For May, we're doing a rare double Record of the Month: two recently released, warm-blooded pop-soul records from two of Australia’s finest voices.
Meg Mac’s It’s My Party and Matt Corby’s Tragic Magic both arrive with that golden-hour glow: rich, intimate, emotional, beautifully performed and built for repeat listens as the weather starts to cool.
Two Australian artists. Two soul-warmed records. One very cosy month ahead.
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MEG MAC — It's My Party
The Artist
Meg Mac has always felt slightly outside the machinery of Australian pop. Since emerging in the early 2010s with that unmistakable powerhouse voice, she has carved out a lane entirely her own: one built on soul, emotional honesty and sheer vocal force rather than trends or spectacle.
Raised in Sydney and classically trained from a young age, Meg first broke through with the MEGMAC EP before quickly becoming one of Australia's most beloved and singular artists. Across records like Low Blows, Hope and Matter of Time, she developed a reputation for pairing towering vocals with deeply personal songwriting, earning multiple ARIA nominations and a fiercely loyal following along the way.
Yet what’s always made Meg compelling is the tension at the centre of her work. There’s strength and vulnerability living side by side. Grandeur paired with intimacy. Songs that can feel enormous one moment and like a private conversation the next.
The Record
It’s My Party sees Meg Mac stepping forward, out of the black-and-white noir of her previous work and into technicolour, revealing a brighter, bolder version of herself.
While earlier records often carried a heavier emotional weight, there’s a new energy running through these songs. The themes remain familiar: love, heartbreak, pressure, uncertainty and the occasional brush with impending doom, but the delivery feels different. More immediate. More playful. More defiant.
Equal parts heart-on-sleeve confession and cinematic modern soul record, It’s My Party balances warmth and emotional complexity with moments that feel genuinely enormous. The hooks land harder, the grooves run deeper, and beneath it all is one of Australia’s great voices operating at full power.
Why We Chose It
We love Meg. In a previous life, we were lucky enough to work with her around a decade ago and have watched her evolution since with astonishment, pride and a fair amount of glee. Seeing her journey from those early days to one of Australia’s most consistently brilliant artists has been a joy.
Here, on It’s My Party, the hooks land harder, the grooves run deeper, and beneath it all is one of Australia’s great voices operating at full power. We’ve wanted to feature a Meg Mac album as a Record Of The Month for years, and her remarkable consistency in delivering front-to-back records without filler has finally collided with impeccable timing.
If You Like…
• Adele if she grew up in Sydney and swapped grey skies for a little more sunshine
• Olivia Dean with a touch more drama and a few extra emotional plot twists
• Celeste soundtracking the world's classiest heartbreak
• Lianne La Havas bringing warmth, intimacy and soul by the bucketload
• Leon Bridges if he somehow transformed into a little white woman with an Aretha-sized set of pipes
Basically: huge voice, huge feelings, and songs that somehow make emotional devastation feel warm and inviting.
Vinyl Details
RELEASED: 20 February 2026
PRODUCER: Bullion
GENRE: Pop
STYLE: Alt-Pop, Vocal pop, Soul-pop
PRESSING DETAILS:
Label: EMI Music Australia
Catalog: 7866520
Edition: 2026 AU Baby Blue Edition
Extras: Signed exclusively by Meg / Listening notes
MATT CORBY — Tragic Magic
The Artist
Matt Corby has spent the better part of the last decade quietly becoming one of Australia’s most fascinating musical shapeshifters.
After first arriving in the public eye through Australian Idol, he could have followed the expected path: big choruses, safe moves, commercial comfort. Instead, he swerved. Across EPs and albums like Telluric and Rainbow Valley, Corby gradually built a catalogue that moved further left of centre, folding soul, folk, psychedelia, jazz and experimental textures into something entirely his own.
What’s made that evolution so compelling is his refusal to stand still. Each release feels less like a career move and more like a document of where his head and heart happen to be at that moment in time.
Along the way, he’s become one of Australia’s most gifted and singular musicians: a producer, songwriter and vocalist capable of making intimate songs feel strangely cosmic.
The Record
Tragic Magic sees Matt Corby continue that restless evolution, stepping away from heavier electronic textures and toward something warmer, more organic and deeply human.
A deeply introspective record exploring life’s dualities, it navigates grief, isolation, fatherhood, love and joy with remarkable warmth and depth. Light and shade constantly shift places here. Soul, folk, psych and groove move together naturally, driven by rich basslines, delicate strings and Corby’s unmistakable soaring falsetto.
There’s a looseness to the album too. A sense of breathing room. These songs feel lived in rather than overworked, inviting you to sit inside them rather than simply observe them from afar.
Like all great records of this kind, Tragic Magic reveals itself slowly. Less a collection of songs than a weather system you gradually find yourself inside.
Why We Chose It
We love soul and admire artists willing to follow curiosity rather than expectation. Matt Corby, by his own admission, wanted to make an organic and old soul record. Hearing 'Burn It Down' secured our fandom of this album before even hearing the rest of it. You can just tell these things. He has spent years taking the scenic route, resisting easy roads and allowing each and every record to uncover a different side of himself. There’s a quiet confidence in that approach, and Tragic Magic feels like another beautiful step forward.
If You Like…
• Bon Iver after finally getting some sunlight and remembering joy exists
• Michael Kiwanuka soundtracking a Sunday afternoon with nowhere to be
• Jordan Rakei disappearing further down the rabbit hole with more soul and stranger corners
• Nick Hakim making music that feels half dream, half incense smoke
• Khruangbin if someone quietly replaced the passport stamps with fatherhood, reflection and a world-class falsetto
Basically: warm grooves, curious detours, and records that feel less like songs and more like weather patterns drifting through the room.
Vinyl Details
RELEASED: 17 April 2026
PRODUCER: Chris Collins / Matt Corby / Dann Hume
GENRE: Pop
STYLE: Alt-pop, Soul-pop, Folk-pop
FILE UNDER:
PRESSING DETAILS:
Label: Rainbow Valley Records / Island Australia
Catalog: 7898703
Edition: 2026 AU White Vinyl Edition
Extras: Listening notes