Julia Jacklin Looks Back with Grace on Her Striking New Single “I Wish”

Not many songwriters can completely wreck you with a single, unvarnished sentence quite like Julia Jacklin. Whether she’s cutting through the noise on record or holding a room entirely still live, she has this rare gift for making deeply personal realizations feel like things you’ve been carrying around yourself for years.

With her fourth album, The Gem, officially on the way this September via 4AD, Jacklin has just dropped its gorgeous closing track and second single, “I Wish”. Featuring stunning, understated harmonies from Elsie and Maggie Rigby of The Maes, it’s a quiet punch to the gut—and a reminder of why she’s one of our finest modern lyricists.

Looking Back Without the Bitterness

Jacklin has always had a knack for looking unflinchingly at her past across her catalog—from the breakthrough folk-rock of Don’t Let the Kids Win to the razor-sharp self-reflection of Pre Pleasure.

“I Wish” feels like a natural extension of that journey. It’s essentially an open letter to her younger self, written from a place of hard-earned peace rather than regret. When she sings lines like, “I got through, yeah I’ll be fine / Still I wish someone had been there at the time,” it strikes a chord because we’ve all been there. It’s that familiar, quiet ache of wishing you could go back and tell the younger version of yourself that everything was going to work out okay, even if the road to get there was messy.

Rather than wallowing, the track acts as an emotional exhale. It captures that terrifying, necessary moment of finally spreading your wings and leaving home—scraped up, but ready.

The Warmth Behind The Gem

Recorded down in Melbourne at Rat Shack—the cozy space right above the legendary Collingwood pub that gave the album its name—The Gem feels like a labor of love. Co-produced with Robert Muinos, the record grew out of months spent untangling the messy space between wanting to love, wanting to be loved, and protecting your own freedom at all costs.

You can hear that warmth and intimacy in every second of “I Wish.” Stripped back to acoustic fundamentals, the song leaves plenty of room to breathe. The sibling harmonies from The Maes drift in softly, wrapping around Jacklin’s voice without ever crowding it. It’s a masterclass in knowing when to hold back.

Catch Her on Tour

The Gem drops on September 25, complete with some gorgeous vinyl variants (including Turquoise, Ruby, and Rose Quartz for the collectors out there). To celebrate, Jacklin is hitting the road this fall for a massive North American headline tour, followed by UK and Europe dates early next year.