On his fifth studio album Icelandic singer-songwriter sgeir enters intriguing and uncharted territory. After years of engaging translators such as John Grant and working with the poetry of his father, Einar Georg Einarsson, sgeir has penned his lyrics by himself for the first time in his long and celebrated career. The result is a deeply contemplative body of work, steeped in nostalgia, that sees sgeir meditating on his past regrets as well as his hopes for the future, guided by the spectre of the albums title character.

sgeir has long been lauded for his intricate folk-pop, lush production, and wistful, emotive falsetto. Julia marks a shift toward not just lyrical self-reliance but cathartic directness, songs that feel not just exquisitely performed, but lived in. This was kind of the first time I was writing lyrics totally on my own, he shares. It was scary. Im still trying to find myself within that. But I tried to open myself up and I learned a lot through that process, and it was definitely therapeutic for me.