We hoped it was coming: daine has officially announced their debut album.
The genre-blending Filipino-Australian producer and artist returned with “PQC” last month, described as the “inception point” of their forthcoming debut album, according to a press release. The track, we were told, set “the emotional and sonic direction for the generational record about to follow.”
Daine today announced said “generational record,” In Endless Awe & Agony, which will arrive on November 6th via Pack. Records.
The album is “structured around a Jungian individuation arc,” with daine tracing “the process of confronting the self, grappling with identity, desire, fear, and transformation.”
Arriving alongside today’s album announcement is another new single, “Love Love (Love Love)”, which achingly captures the quiet spiral of depression that consumes one as they struggled to maintain an appearance that everything is okay.
“Love Love (Love Love)” follows “PQC”, which was praised by us, Pitchfork, Stereogum, and The New York Times. Listen to the former track below.
We got Ninajirachi and daine together for an in-depth conversation last year, and the latter opened up about their anxieties surrounding their debut album.
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“My god, it’s so scary,” daine admitted. “Yeah, I have no issue admitting that I’m terrified and I think that I put it off this long because I feel like an album is something that needs to have a cohesive concept and a sound.
“I think that my sound has been kind of all over the place and I’ve been trying to find what it is. So like mixtapes and EPs are just what naturally comes out, because there’s not that pressure for it to be this fully fledged out thing conceptually.”
Daine also told Ninajirachi about the lyrical direction their music has been taking: “At least conceptually in my lyrics, I’m trying to explore things that are a little uglier and more uncomfortable, but in a really cheeky, fun way. And just like push boundaries.
“Even though I feel like it’s really hard to push boundaries nowadays because everything is just so intense and over the top in media, which is kind of frustrating. But then again, I think the only way to make something feel like it’s boundary pushing is to also like understate things in a way. And I think I want my sound to just be really simple and direct.”
Daine is currently on an Australian tour with Ninajirachi and Lucy Bedroque. Read our review of the tour’s Sydney stop here.
Daine’s “Love Love (Love Love)” is out now. In Endless Awe & Agony is out November 6th via Pack. Records.
