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Sep 21, 2023 By Mark Redfern Photography by Rachel Bennett

Australian singer/songwriter Alex Lahey has announced an expanded edition of her recent album, The Answer Is Always Yes, and shared a new song from it, “Newsreader,” via a lyric video. The expanded edition is due out October 6 via Liberation. Check out “Newsreader” below.

Australian broadcaster Tamara Oudyn inspired the song. Lahey ellaborates in a press release: “I remember having the news on at home one night and watching the newsreader broadcast one awful story after another and it got me thinking about the emotional toll it must take on someone to literally be the bearer of bad news to an entire population night after night, day after day. The newsreader that inspired this song, Tamara Oudyn of the ABC 7pm News Report, was the seemingly omnipresent newsreader in my household at the time this song was written. It turned out that there were only a degree or two of separation between Tam and I—next thing you know, Tam popped into the studio and laid down some BVs on this track.”

The expanded edition also includes the bonus tracks “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” and “When The Rain Comes Down.”

Read our interview with Lahey on The Answer Is Always Yes.

When The Answer Is Always Yes was announced, Lahey shared its lead single, “Good Time,” via a music video. “Good Time” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then she shared another song from it, “They Wouldn’t Let Me In,” via an amusing music video featuring Lahey working in a furniture store. “They Wouldn’t Let Me In” was #1 on Songs of the Week list. Then she shared the album’s “The Sky is Melting,” via a lyric video (it was also one of our Songs of the Week).

The album also includes two 2022 singles. In August 2022 Lahey shared the new song, “Congratulations,” via a video where she married herself. “Congratulations” was one of our Songs of the Week. In November 2022 she shared “Shit Talkin’,” which was also one of our Songs of the Week.

Lahey had this to say about the album in a previous press release: “Living in a world that wasn’t made for you makes you pretty strong and adaptive, and you find the fun in it. It also makes you realize how absurd everything is. With this record, I wanted to get weird because the world is weird, and it’s even weirder when you realize you don’t fit into it all the time.”

The Answer Is Always Yes is the first time Lahey has worked with outside producers and songwriters. Jacknife Lee (U2, Taylor Swift) co-wrote and co-produced “Good Time,” for example.

“I’ve made two records doing it all by myself and now I’ve proved to myself that I can do it,” Lahey said. “But it was also at a point where I was like, ‘If I do that again, I kind of know what it’s gonna sound like’ and I don’t think I’m interested in that right now.”

Of the album’s title, Lahey added: “I feel like if you’re saying yes and you’re exploring, you’re always moving. That’s the part of life that I’m in right now. I just don’t wanna stop.”

The Answer Is Always Yes is Lahey’s third album and the follow-up to 2019’s The Best of Luck Club.

In 2021, Lahey shared the song “On My Way” from the animated Netflix film The Mitchells vs. the Machines, and it nabbed a spot on our Songs of the Week list. That was followed by another new song, “Spike the Punch,” shared in October 2021 and also one of our Songs of the Week. Neither song is on The Answer Is Always Yes.

Lahey was also one of the artists on our 20th anniversary Covers of Covers album, where she covered St. Vincent’s “New York.”

Read our 2017 interview with Alex Lahey.

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