Angie McMahon has returned with her first new single in three years, ‘Saturn Returning’.
The soaring new track is informed, per a press release, by the singer-songwriter’s own ‘Saturn return’, an astrological transit that occurs around every 30 years and induces major life changes and intense growth in a person.
On ‘Saturn Returning’, McMahon makes a series of vows to herself, promises steeped in self-love: “I’m gonna be everything she couldn’t hold / I’m gonna dance every day ‘till I’m old / I’m gonna love every inch of this body / the limbs that are writing each day of this story.”
Hear the song and watch its music video, which was co-directed by Bridgette Winten and McMahon:
‘Saturn Returning’ was written in New York “during a particularly challenging time” and originated from a prompt given in a songwriting group McMahon shares with Mimi Gilbert, Ruby Gill and Hannah Cameron. The song came to life in North Carolina and was co-produced by McMahon and Brad Cook.
“Your Saturn Return is like a teacher, and this song is a conversation with myself through a time of significant endings and beginnings, where compassion and hope have been the best antidote to my own mental health struggles,” McMahon said in a statement.
“The biggest lesson I’ve had in this chapter of my life is the value of a gentle and loving relationship with myself, no matter what. When I went for a walk and listened to it I started crying, feeling like a choir of hopeful voices could see me struggling and they had my back. I realised I’d been writing the song I needed to hear.”
McMahon’s last recorded project was the 2020 EP ‘Piano Salt’, a piano-driven accompaniment to her acclaimed 2019 debut album ‘Salt’. Based in Naarm/Melbourne, she has lately been active on the festival circuit and as a climate advocate.