Ziggy Alberts has announced his seventh studio album, TWIN FLAMES, alongside the release of new single “I Blame Myself”, out Thursday September 3rd.
Recorded in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales with longtime collaborator and producer Garrett Kato, the album follows Alberts’ 2025 release NEW LOVE and arrives after a rare stretch of time spent at home following years on the road.
That period of relative stillness appears to have given Alberts room to reassess both his creative direction and some of the relationships and experiences that shaped him.
On “I Blame Myself”, he turns that reflection inward, examining the tendency to accept responsibility for situations that, with distance, look considerably more complicated.
“Upon reflection, it’s full on, it’s really pointing the finger,” Alberts says. “I always want to make a concession for the fact that you need to see how you played into a situation. And I can see now, looking back, that I was a kid trying to do my best.
“But there are moments in your life where, as much as you want to take the majority of the blame, some relationships are just bloody toxic, and you’ve blamed yourself for things you didn’t need to.”
The song also reaches back to an earlier period in Alberts’ career when questions around identity forced him to consider what separated his work from that of countless other acoustic singer-songwriters.
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“Reflecting on how this song came about, that moment in my life was important because I was challenged to know who I was,” he explains. “Giving away too much, I was asking myself, ‘Who are you? What sets you apart?’, because everyone can have a guitar and a felt hat.”
For Alberts, the answer became increasingly tied to the values that would go on to underpin his independent career, including environmentalism and a commitment to playing all-ages shows.
“I think that’s the time I really leaned into my environmentalism, into playing all-ages shows, into my independent career,” he says. “All of that was truly who I was, and the challenge of that time pushed me down that path in an important way, to ask those questions and discover the answers.”
“I Blame Myself” follows recent single “I Need My Woman”, which was selected with some help from Alberts’ international fanbase.
For that release, more than 35 independent cafes were enlisted for an unusual listening activation that allowed fans to hear unreleased music through vintage rotary phones, choose which track they wanted released as a single, and leave recorded feedback for Alberts.
TWIN FLAMES continues a substantial period of growth for the Australian singer-songwriter. Alberts’ catalogue has now surpassed one billion global streams, while years of international touring have established him as one of Australia’s most widely travelled independent artists.
According to Alberts, the new album centres on questions of duality, uncertainty and identity, while pushing him into different sonic territory and encouraging him to explore new areas of his vocal range.
Rather than simply extending the sound of NEW LOVE, TWIN FLAMES appears positioned as another shift in a career Alberts has largely built on his own terms.
TWIN FLAMES is Ziggy Alberts’ seventh studio album, out October 16th. “I Blame Myself” is out September 3rd.
