It’s a real treat to have Dan Oke offering up more music under his Jarrow alter-ego again, after a near-silent 2019. That’s not to say Dan had a quiet year - instead he could be spotted around the place playing with Candy, House Deposit, Scraggers, Future Boys, Dragnet, Me Channel, Guffman and probably a couple of other things too. But it’s always been clear that Jarrow has been the apple of his eye, a project that can somehow contain the sprawl of his uninhabited musical abilities into indie-rock nuggets, without washing away the charming gleam of his personality that’s so inexplicably linked to his music making.

The first new single today is ‘Flowerbed’, a track that picks up where Dan’s previous album Expensive Hugs left off nicely. Amidst of flurry of chiming guitar chords, basslines meander and keyboards shimmer, while Dan weaves all his wit and personality into an instantly addictive lead vocal. He’s suggested this coming album is his most refined work so far, and ‘Flowerbed’ does nothing but support this theory - every melody could be a chorus, the instrumentation is intricate without feeling busy, and the glorious synth solo that rides the song out might be heard as chaotic if it wasn’t so perfectly executed.

Speaking about the track and clip, Dan shares “‘Flowerbed’ is about trying to convince yourself that the things you love are worth the energy you put in, despite external forces that may say otherwise. The video for this song was filmed in one take with choreography help from my friend Macklin - I hadn't attempted any sort of interpretive dance before making the video, but after one go I can safely say I'm now an expert in the field.”

Next up is ‘Sauce Song’, which manages to capture the immense scope of Dan’s songwriting into four minutes of enigmatic pop. Backed by a propulsive drum machine, guitars take a backseat in favour of bold synthesisers, which underpin a restless melody that hooks in with Dan’s captivating lyrics.

Based on a true story (that you can attempt to decipher in the new clip above), Dan explains “‘Sauce Song’ recounts the night that myself and the Jband met a mysterious figure who only went by the name Sauce. We met him in passing while we were staying overnight at a sharehouse in Wollongong, and by the next morning he had completely vanished without a trace.” It’s the kind of song that both feels rooted in place yet continually pushing forward - not unlike the way Dan toys with classic indie-rock in a way that constantly feels refreshing and unpredictable.