Stella Donnelly – Love and Fortune

On Love and Fortune, Stella Donnelly returns with a deeply personal and grounded album, a body of work tracing the journey back to herself after a period of profound change. Recorded in Naarm/Melbourne, the album carries the anchoring energy of place, offering a sonic landscape that feels both intimate and expansive.

After several intense years on the road, Donnelly stepped away from touring to re-evaluate her relationship with music and ask whether she still loved it. That quiet pause led to deeper listening: to her instincts, her emotions, and the many past versions of herself. What emerged is a collection of songs shaped by endings—the dissolving of relationships, abandoned hobbies, and chapters closing with the echoes of what once felt permanent. These are breakup songs, but not just of the romantic kind. They capture the shedding of skins, the release of old expectations, and a cautious openness to what might come next. The artwork by Sam Love depicts a figure held back by fear, unsure whether to dive back into music and the whirlpool of public songwriting.

“These songs wouldn't leave me alone,” Donnelly says. “Like seagulls, they screamed at me when I rode to work, they pecked at me while I wrote essays, and they stole my chips the second I thought I was happier without music.”

Donnelly arrives at a starker sound that lays bare the individual behind the artist. Love and Fortune blends pianos and guitars as in her earlier work, but this time the arrangements are more exposed, more intentional. Longtime collaborators and friends Marcel Tussie, Jack Gaby, and Julia Wallace join her again, alongside new guests Sophie Ozard, Timothy Harvey, and Ellie Mason.