Name: Derealization
Brand: Julia, Julia

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

SSQ195LPC1

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Colour

Pink

Colour details

Heartbeat Pink

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Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: Yes

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

1500

Release date

2022-09-30

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Cargo

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

0803238019512

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Total Cap

1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / pink

SSQ195CD

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Download code: No

0803238019529

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1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Julia, Julia 

Genre GB

Alternative / Modern

Label GB

Suicide Squeeze

Founded in 1996 by David Dickenson, Suicide Squeeze is a Seattle-based music label that has made its mark on the industry. With a focus on indie rock and alternative music, the label has consistently released high-quality albums from both established and emerging artists. Known for their commitment to supporting unique and innovative sounds, Suicide Squeeze continues to be a driving force in the music scene.
Over the years, Suicide Squeeze has built a reputation for discovering and nurturing talented musicians. Their roster includes notable acts such as Modest Mouse, The Black Keys, and Elliott Smith. With an impressive catalog of releases spanning various genres, the label prides itself on offering diverse musical experiences to its listeners.
As an e-commerce website dedicated to showcasing the best of Suicide Squeeze's discography, we are proud to bring you an extensive collection of albums from this influential label. Whether you're a fan of indie rock or looking to discover new sounds, our platform offers easy access to some of the most exciting music being produced today. Explore our selection and immerse yourself in the world of Suicide Squeeze.

Debut Solo Album From Julia Kugel (The Coathangers). If you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust?

This is the crucial question at the core of Julia, Julia, the moniker for Julia Kugel, founding member of garage punk icons The Coathangers and the dream pop duo Soft Palms. On her first solo full-length album Derealization, Kugel shifts her focus from collaboration and band dynamics towards a singular artistic vision and private self-discovery. Steeped in the beguiling pop elements of her past work, Derealization is a meditative deep dive into the mind of a person struggling to understand a crumbling internal and external world. The album traverses a landscape of ethereal folk, atmospheric deconstructed pop, and dubbed-out country ballads, all centered around straight forward and direct lyrics. This juxtaposition of nebulousness and lucidity gives the album a sense of clarity emerging from the haze, an apt refection of Kugel's personal growth and journey toward self-acceptance.

Derealization is based on weaving the unreal, unsaid, and unknown into an undulating sonic fabric. Vocal layering and abstract instrumentation convey a blurred desperation to connect to an emotional and psychological focal point. Moody, dark, and sumptuous, the record is a flow chart of Julia Kugel coming into herself as an artist and songwriter. The album finds Julia playing almost all the instruments and taking her first stab at engineering at COMA, her and her husband's home recording studio in Long Beach, CA.

“You know how touring musicians often speak of whether home is real or tour is real? Well, it can lead you to lose grasp on ‘reality,’ especially when touring is taken away and you are left to wonder if anything was ever real, including yourself. Like you we're just playing a character,” Kugel says of her headspace leading up to the creation of Derealization. “Honestly, I kinda lost it, and through making this record I made peace with it and reconciled myself as a real person. I forgave myself and in turn forgave those around me. The song ‘Forgive Me’ is the apology I wanted to say and to hear. I wrote every song from that place and gained the confidence I was pretending to possess.”

This raw and personal approach to the lyrics is present throughout Derealization. On the opening track "I Want You," Kugel creates a woozy sense of space with reverb-soaked drums and spaghetti western guitars while she lists off her desires for a mysterious “you.” Is she actually listing off her desires for herself? For the people around her? As she repeats "do you feel it?" in the song’s chorus, it feels as if she’s conjuring a magical thread by which we are all connected, showing us how our desires are all the same. On "Fever In My Heart" the listener is treated to a lush, acoustic techno track detailing the exhilarating madness of an emotional breakdown. Simple truths percolate to the surface on "Words Don't Mean Much,” as if clearing away the murk of platitudes and empty gestures. The journey continues on the detached and conflicted "Do It Or Don't,” an alluring walk through the winding road of lonely choices.

The name for the project Julia, Julia is a look in the mirror, a refection of what is hidden and unanswered, of what is real and what is transient. The experience of living life not as you planned it but as it unfolded, and the mysterious, magical pain that creates meaning. 

Derealization

Music GB

Buy Julia, Julia - Derealization (Vinyl, CD) now from Rough Trade - independent purveyors of great music, since 1976.