Album Review: Love And Fortune by Stella Donnelly

Maybe it's just me, but Stella Donnelly's music has always carried the faint scent of Christmas. Not the department-store kind with Slade blaring and plastic reindeer grinning in shop windows, but something quieter, that stillness that arrives in midwinter when the world finally exhales. Her new album Love and Fortune isn't seasonal in any sense of the word, yet it glows with that same wistful light, the cold frost of heartbreak softened by the warmth of understanding and a gentle compassion for herself.

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The follow-up to 2022’s Flood is a more reflective, inward looking collection, having been inspired by a falling out with a formerly close friend Now onto her third album, it’s clear that Stella Donnelly likes to take her time. Donnelly first appeared in the post-Courtney Barnett wave of new alternative music from Australia, and her album Beware Of The Dogs was one of the best albums of 2018. That was followed three years later by the well-received Flood in 2022.

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The cover of this third album from Stella Donnelly is instructive; it depicts a swimmer by the side of the pool, clearly having reservations about getting in. When she finished her last round of touring, in support of 2022's 'Flood', the Melbourne native was unsure of where she stood relative to her music, and considered the possibility that she might have fallen out of love with songwriting. 'Love and Fortune' dispels that notion; comprising eleven gorgeously-drawn portraits of uncertainty, self-discovery and homecoming, it is Stella's most expressive and vulnerable work to date.

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