Sycco – Look Up
Look Up, the intimate and vulnerable second album from Naarm/Melbourne-based artist and producer Sycco (aka Sash McLeod), is out now.
What was planned as a secret pop-up at BigSound last month – a show to mark the release of her single “I’ve Loved & I’ve Lost” – turned out to be a revelatory moment for fans and Sycco alike. Performing solo for the first time, on the back of a truck in a commercial carpark to a packed crowd, the elements that define Sycco – innovative producer, skilled multi-instrumentalist, and soaring vocalist – coalesced to reveal a true star in the making.
At once intimate and rousing, the performance offered a fitting preview of Look Up. Recorded largely on a farm on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula with co-producer Oscar Sharah (with additional input from frequent LA-based collaborator Chrome Sparks), Look Up traverses pop, soul, R&B and electronica: crystalline vocals layered over drums built from scratch, raw and transparent but still carrying her signature psychedelic flair.
The product of an unexpected reckoning, the album was written while she was simultaneously falling in love and quietly unravelling. “This album feels private, as if I’m hiding under a desk singing these songs because they feel so vulnerable,” Sycco explains. “At the same time, it feels like I’ve just been to therapy – such a release. It’s about feeling in-transit and displaced, yearning for someone or a place, never feeling settled. This album isn’t about reaching a conclusion: it’s about what it feels like to figure it out.”
To accompany the release, Sycco shares a visualiser for album highlight ‘Tell Me When You’re Home”
The album follows the release of title track “Look Up”, which was added to rotation at triple j and FBi immediately on release and features in EA SPORTS FC 27, and the Phil Collins-inspired “I’ve Loved & I’ve Lost”. McLeod also recently picked up a co-writing credit on the My Brilliant Career soundtrack, contributing to Jess Hitchcock’s track “Burn It Down.”
Sycco plays a free pop-up show at Skydiver in Collingwood this evening. Click here for details.
Look Up follows Sycco’s critically acclaimed, ARIA-nominated, J Award-winning debut Zorb, made with collaborators including Flume, Chrome Sparks, Mallrat and Stylaz Fuego, has amassed more than 80 million career streams. Over her short career, Sycco has placed twice in triple j’s Hottest 100 was championed by Spotify (RADAR, EQUAL, GLOW), Apple Music (Up Next) and Amazon Music (Breakthrough). She has supported Tame Impala, Remi Wolf and Glass Animals on national tours, and scored international radio support from BBC Radio 1, KCRW, KEXP and SiriusXM.
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