Flora Hibberd – Mammoth
English indie rocker Flora Hibberd proudly announces her second album, Mammoth, coming October 16th on 22TWENTY.
Featuring an immensely talented cast of collaborators, the album is heralded by lead single “Ache,” which arrives with a music video directed by Jorge Domingo.
‘Hurts so good’ presents an apt descriptor of the galloping “Ache.” The wounded chorus of voices, led by Hibberd, also includes indie icon Sufjan Stevens alongside Kate Stables (This Is The Kit) and Lonny. Not dissimilar to Yazoo’s “Only You,” the song is buoyed by its synths, melancholy but airy, spinning pain into something far more complex than a mere obstacle to avoid or overcome. On “Ache,” the healing comes by going through it and by acknowledging that sometimes, our pain is all in our heads. As Hibberd puts it, “It doesn’t matter if everything is made up, it will all still make you ache, like stubbing your toe or waiting for someone at the airport.”
Hibberd shared how the song and Sufjan’s involvement came to be: “I love the energy Ben Lanz (Beirut, The National) brought to this track with his joyous synth lines and I love that it’s a departure from our very guitar-y universe. Sufjan heard the track through Ben and offered to contribute vocals. The part he came up with and sent over is pretty stunning, this overlapping dialogue that twists and turns through the song. Then Kate Stables’s and Lonny’s vocals add to its lush texture, all the parts coming together and completing each other.”
Complicated, incongruous feelings and lyricisms told through pleasing melodies is a central tenant of Mammoth, Hibberd’s second album after her debut Swirl. As her themes grow more challenging to put to paper, the songs only expand to match those complexities. The acoustic leanings of her debut are overshadowed by electronic elements and a host of new instrumentation.
“Ache” follows the first taster of the forthcoming album. The track has already earned early support from SiriusXM, landing on their XMU Download 15. Hibberd released “Mammoth” alongside two shows at The Great Escape, where she demonstrated her captivating quality from studio to stage.
Mammoth is a record about ghosts, time, and life in the neighbourhood. Its characters occupy the past, the present and the future: mythic figures of the apocalypse lurk in the bushes, mammoths wander the streets — if you look closely enough. The record responds to the mounting weirdnesses of hypermodernity with its own set of contradictions: dynamic yet cohesive, multiple yet clear-eyed, enraged yet joyous.
The second studio album from Hibberd will follow debut LP Swirl (2025) — and consequently the deluxe edition of the record earlier this year — which arrived quietly, but quickly garnered a wave of critical praise. Earning love from music tastemakers across social media, many saluted it with Album of the Year acclaim, lauding Hibberd’s haunting musicality in the contemporary folk-pop space. The record was produced by Shane Leonard, who recruited musicians for the album who play with the likes of Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens, and The Tallest Man On Earth.
Following early support from BBC Radio 6 Music at Maida Vale Studios back in 2022, momentum around the artist has become undeniable since Swirl. Her growing recognition has been driven by audience-led attention and the passion of the music fan, built on nothing but Hibberd’s raw talent.
Having steadily grown a reputation as a compelling performer, Hibberd has shared stages with the likes of Kim Deal, Kate Bollinger, Oracle Sisters, Porridge Radio and more. Her quietly magnetic presence is hailed a live must see, for fans of artists such as Saya Gray, Perfume Genius, Sufjan Stevens, and Aldous Harding.
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