As showcased in their recent ‘Permanent Resident’ EP, Australia’s The Great Emu War Casualties possess everything it takes to become international cult favourites. They infuse art-rock influences such as Talking Heads and Everything Everything with the festival-headlining indie thrills of Bloc Party and Two Door Cinema Club, all with a lyrical slant of deep yet self-deprecating introspective. Those traits dominate their debut album ‘Public Sweetheart No.1’ which will be released on March 27th. The record includes their brand new single ‘Donut’. Listen HERE.
‘Public Sweetheart No.1’ casts The Great Emu War Casualties as sleep-deprived, overly emotional art-rockers. It’s a record of off-kilter grooves, sun-kissed melodies, dopamine-stimulating hooks and melancholic detours – but never losing sight of the quick thrills of a three-minute pop song. Collectively it feels like a cry for help, one that feels equally at home filling the awkward silences in a therapist’s office as it does on your chill beats playlist.
‘Donut’ kicks the jangly guitars and sweet vocal harmonies of the power-pop tradition into 2026 with the help of moody synth textures. Its stream-of-consciousness lyrics feel playfully surreal (“If I was juice at least I’d have a use / I’d be part of the healthy revolution” and “I was at the airport when you sent me a Canva about a donut”), but the spiky humour is part of the truth that emerges: you can realise that you’ve failed to embrace adulthood, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Much like their music, the story behind The Great Emu War Casualties sits away from the bench marked conventional. Joe Jackson recalls missing his first ever gigs at primary school: the first by pretending his guitar string had snapped to avoid playing, and the second because his string had actually snapped. He started out in his teens as part of a Tenacious D tribute act, until he realised writing his own songs would land more gigs.
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