Seldom does a song feel so much like a season that you can almost feel the hot wind or the icy stillness on your skin while you listen. In Amarina Waters’ debut record End of the World Fantasy, the Dja Dja Wurrung/Castlemaine-based songwriter gives us 9 such songs recorded in Aotearoa/NZ with award winning producer Ben Edwards (Marlon Williams, Aldous Harding, Julia Jacklin). Each wry, moving alt-folk track is delivered with a crisp nostalgia that transports us to that ephemeral place that only nature, love and mortality can truly conjure up. 

In this profound, accomplished and long-awaited first offering, Waters puts her life, and maybe our collective lives too, under the revealing light of a rare blue moon. With effortless wit couched in ‘plain spoken’ poetry - give me your gold tooth babe, that’s where you shine - she weaves a ‘woven thing’ of a story that will linger with you long after the last perfectly-crafted syllables have set. Part memoir, part witnessing of humanity’s romance, mortality and relationships to nature, these 9 songs are the kind that make you genuinely glad that Amarina wrote them. 

An active and much loved member of Naarm/Melbourne’s indie music scene, Waters has already garnered attention, respect and radio play from 3RRR to Triple J, well before releasing a full-length album. She’s graced stages alongside Angie McMahon, Gretta Ray, Ruby Gill and sold-out headline shows, shared festival lineups with the likes of Missy Higgins, Vera Blue, Ngaiire and Tiny Ruins, as well as performed at Brunswick Music Festival, End Of The Line and Darebin Music Feast. 

For newcomers, there’s something of a Jen Cloher power to it, cracked open by a Laura Marling-esque generosity and a Joni Mitchell clarity and lilt. But really, there’s just everything of Amarina in it, all her longing, resolve, wisdom and humour illuminated for us to feel our way through. And what a privilege to bask in her grief, joy and acceptance - I tried to arrive, but I found that the end’s always moving. You can tell by how she sings that Amarina is ‘grateful to have music in her life’ (ABC). With this record, music will be grateful to have Amarina.