Before STRABE’s debut album had a name, it had a colour – a deep, vivid blue. In hindsight, it was there all along, beaming out of the cyanotype prints that STRABE vocalist Angelica Black began making throughout the writing process, and percolating like rushing water through the genre-fluid production work crafted by the duo’s Emmet Carey. The debut album embodies how the band navigate stepping into a world they’ve created for themselves and finding out who they are in the process. A bittersweet exploration of grief, growth and personal evolution. STRABE originally met six years ago at Cork Music Festival, bonding over their eerily similar music tastes, before quickly realising that they each represented the missing piece of the other’s creative dreams. Angelica, who is originally from Edinburgh, had pages upon pages of lyrics without a real home, while Dubliner Emmet had an electronic solo project without a voice tethering it all together. “I guess, to put it simply, opposites attract,” says Angelica. “We have a lot of similar tastes, but we also have these very polar opposite sides.”

“A larger than life, exuberant sound… it’s full throttle excitement from start to finish” – NME

“STRABE hit the ground running… a surging, inspiring piece of alt-pop” – Clash

“Euphoric… captures the sentiment of post-lockdown life” – The Line of Best Fit