On new album ‘POWER,’ Illuminati Hotties’ Sarah Tudzin simplifies her indie rock sound and removes the mask as she begins the lifelong process of working through grief – revealing her true self in the process.

Stream: ‘POWER’ – illuminati hotties

I feel like I have a long way to climb as an artist, and I’m hoping a bunch of people get on board and do the climb with me.

Early dawn light peeking through the curtains, bodies everywhere, and a pounding headache: The morning after is a cliché we’ve all witnessed in movies – and a lot of us have experienced in real life.

That lurching in the pit of the stomach and the whispering amongst friends is a soundtrack as old as time. It also feels like the spiritual opening of Illuminati Hotties’ fourth album, POWER: The first three records were the party, now it’s time for the reckoning.

It’s a strange concept to say that an artist’s fourth record is an introduction, and yet after three very fun but non-revealing albums from Sarah Tudzin – the multi-instrumentalist, producer, and general musical wizard behind the Illuminati Hotties moniker – it finally feels like the mask is finally being pulled back.

“As much as this is the fourth full album that I’ve put out, it feels like the beginning in a lot of ways,” says Tudzin. “I was able to hide behind some pretty fun music; not to say that this one isn’t fun, but the other stuff was fun in a way where I could keep everything at arm’s length and sort of redirect people’s imaginations,” says Tudzin. “POWER is a lot closer to reality than it’s ever been.”

Illuminati Hotties burst onto the scene with 2017’s Kiss Yr Frenemies, a scuzzy lo-fi record dripping with charm and potential. However, it was 2020’s FREE I.H: This Is Not The One You’ve Been Waiting For that truly got critical attention, her fury and distortion capturing us—and releasing her from an allegedly crooked record deal. Since then she’s calmed down a little, with her eclectic indie rock heavier on catchy choruses than angst.

Since 2021’s Let Me Do One More, Tudzin has accomplished a lot: From working as a mixer, engineer and producer on records for Weyes Blood, Pom Pom Squad, Coldplay, Speedy Ortiz (and so many more) to winning a Grammy for her work on Boygenius’ sensational album, the record. Listening to POWER, released August 23, 2024 via Snack Shack Tracks / Hopeless Records, one can hear the maturity these experiences have brought her.

“There’s still an element of this album where it’s throwing everything against the wall and trying stuff out that I don’t get to try on other people’s records that I’m producing, but there’s a maturity in knowing that less will serve the song better,” says Tudzin. The result is a more stripped back version of Illuminati Hotties, a simpler iteration that still carries her trademark snarl.

It’s a sonic shift that suits the heaviness of the album’s lyrics: Tudzin lost her mother since the last album, which opened a hole in her world that she has been unable to process.

“I tried to write my way around it, I tried to write about anything else. I admire so deeply the artists that are able to say ‘this event happened in my life, I’m sitting down to process it, and the whole album is about that.’ I wish I could be that vulnerable, but I couldn’t even bear to face my own reality. I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to talk about it. I wasn’t emotionally available to go there, but the process of just writing about anything, I tricked myself because there was no way for it to not pour out of me, because it’s so deeply is a part of all of my thoughts and is the background noise to everything I do now.”

POWER then, isn’t just a great gateway record to the Hotties’ catalog, but the first time that fans can really see the real Tudzin.

“I hope that people do feel like they know me better, and they know themselves better,” says Tudzin. “I was able to allow myself to be more real, because I didn’t have the energy to put up the walls.”

The whole album is a beautiful morning after the party conversation: She’s open about the pain of the last few years, vulnerable about the constancy of grief and finally letting us into her world. While there’s no skippable tracks, the whole album revolves around the song “Power.” It’s a classic switcheroo, landing at the back end of the album to completely change our understanding: “It definitely feels like a hinge point of the album: I feel like ‘power’ is the kaleidoscope through which to view the rest of the songs.”

“Power” makes immediately re-listening to the album feel mandatory.

It’s not the only great song on the record, however. “I Would Like, Still Love You” sounds like prime Tegan & Sara, while “Falling In Love With Somebody Better” feels like a modern update on your favourite Motion City Soundtrack song. Like MCS, most of POWER is fun, catchy, and belying something much darker.

But mostly, POWER is about growth – both sonic and personal. It’s about a 30-something-year-old taking stock of her life – the accomplishments and the pain – and channeling all of it into a moving record of her time.

Sarah Tudzin is sat at life’s kitchen table the following day, able at last to put aside all the parties and the distractions to finally let us in.

“The next morning debrief after the party is a really special moment, and you do learn a lot about someone.”

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POWER

an album by illuminati hotties