At first, I thought these lyrics captured Meg feeling stuck – wanting out of a relationship but not yet ready to face that truth. When she sings about her “big mistake” in verse two, I assumed it might point to infidelity. But after listening to the album in full, I realised that trying to pin down the narrative was beside the point.

It’s My Party is Meg’s fourth album and her first since “Matter of Time”, a release she famously held back for years while reworking it in pursuit of perfection. It’s heartening, then, to learn that she described this new record – which pivots away from the “live in the studio” feel of her earlier work toward a more upbeat, electronic sound – as a “release of control.”

The album still carries the rich vocals, soulful piano and commanding lyricism we know and love from the ARIA-nominated indie-pop artist, but it reveals a more playful side of Meg.

Bookended by the opener “He Said No” and Meg’s rendition of Lesley Gore’s iconic It’s My Party to finish – both nodding to the inconveniently public tears that breakups so often provoke (at airports, your own party, etc) – it’s comforting to lean into the record’s subtle mockery of heartbreak. After all, if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.

As one of the more earnest songs on the album, “Sometimes” stands slightly apart. When we caught up with Meg, she described writing it as cathartic – a turning point, a moment of reprieve from a painful period of self-blame.

“I discovered that perhaps I am too hard on myself and feel a lot of guilt. I needed some relief from that pain, and it felt good to just say sometimes you have to do something to make you feel better.”

You can hear that shift toward self-compassion in the song’s sound, which feels less urgent than the album’s other tracks. Dreamy electric guitar softens the piano pattern, anchoring its structure, and the weight of Meg’s grief seems to lift as her voice ascends effortlessly: