Brooke Fraser's new album Brutal Romantic will be released this Friday - but you can listen to it here first, for free, all week.
The record is Fraser's fourth studio album and marks a new era for the Kiwi songwriter.
"I really felt that Flags [her third album, released in 2010] was the end of a trilogy for me as an artist. I felt like I'd explored the folk pop singer songwriter world. I knew that I had always set my voice against really warm organic sounds, and I really wanted to experiment with setting my voice against different textures - spiky things and cold things and mechanical things, and bring out the tension and contrast and balance that could be enjoyed if I did that," she told TimeOut.
The album title, which helps to signal that change in sonic direction, landed in Fraser's lap quite early on in the process, but she immediately knew it was right.
