Claude says:David Le'aupepe wrote this 77-minute second album during a year-long writer's block while touring constantly, processing loss and personal struggles through orchestral interludes and anthemic rock built on the idea of finding hope in bleakness. It swept the 2017 ARIAs, placed four songs in Triple J's Hottest 100, and went platinum in Australia — a monument to big feelings that's since made Rolling Stone's all-time Australian albums list. You had one stray play last summer that didn't land, but when it finally clicked in February, you went deep: "The Heart Is a Muscle" and "The Deepest Sighs, the Frankest Shadows" have been the anchors, though you've worked through all eight of his most desperate, hopeful songs.