MR BONGO
Ella Thompson - Triumph and Sadness Ella Thompson
Ella Thompson is standing up for feeling
Standing up for joy and pain and all the messy, confusing, beautiful details that make life worth living. Soulful and timeless, her songs tell stories of the heart, finding universal truths in the honesty of personal experience.
Released on UK label Mr Bongo and College of Knowledge in Australia and New Zealand, Triumph & Sadness is her most profound album yet - a powerful and unique record inspired by a classic sweet soul sound and rooted in the contemporary moment. Reaching out with vulnerability and poise, it is a plea for connection in a world gone numb. Recorded over four fruitful days at an all- analogue studio in the stunning natural surroundings of rural Victoria (with additional sessions for horns vocals and overdubs at Sound Park in Northcote), Triumph & Sadness was cut direct-to-tape with all the urgency and warmth of the iconic '60s and '70s sessions that first inspired her. Written alongside Liam McGorry (Temporary Blessings), featuring collaborators from bands Surprise Chef and Karate Boogaloo and mixed by Daptone and The Womack Sisters collaborator Wayne Gordon, it captures the live energy of a band at the top of their game.
Because it is through Melbourne's vibrant, supportive independent scene that Thompson has found her voice. Coming up alongside contemporaries like Hiatus Kaiyote, two solo releases followed in quick succession, the 7- track EP 'Domino' in 2023, and LP Ripple on the Wing in 2024, pushing the boundaries of the song form and immersing herself in studio production, while building a creative community that has in turn shaped her sound. Inspired by Australian soul singer Renee Geyer, who blazed a trail across the country in the 1970s, and a wide tapestry of influences from soul titans like Nina Simone and Curtis Mayfield, to the philosophical musings of Patti Smith, Alice Walker and Simone Weil, Thompson takes the listener by the heart and hand across the album's 10 shimmering songs.
Her belief in the significance of connection shines through on the album's thematic centrepiece, 'Promise To Keep'. It is a track that feels at once profound and whimsical in the best possible way, about building nerve, embracing naivety, bravery and love in an act that Thompson likens to a renewed romanticism. Then there is 'Change of Heart', which reflects on the temporality, impermanence and synchronicity of a moment, and the bittersweet paradox where everything contains its opposite: absence and presence, innocence and experience, triumph and sadness. Musically, it unfolds as a down-tempo, slinky ballad with falsetto vocals, ending in triumphant horns that signal the release of letting go. Drawing on the group vocal arrangements of bands like The Royalettes, it is devastating in its simplicity.
And so, from 'My Weakness', which draws on the myth of Narcissus to question the loops of recognition and unsated longing built into life under Capitalism, to the bubbling intensity of 'Dandelion' whose contradiction between bitter taste and beautiful flower inspires Thompson to ask what we fear by caring too much, Triumph & Sadness weaves together threads that speak of life's great challenges. It is a complete and compelling statement from an artist ready to connect with a global audience for the first time.
Ella Thompson presents a powerful and unique new album inspired by a classic sweet soul sound and rooted in the contemporary moment
Written alongside Liam McGorry (Temporary Blessings), featuring collaborators from bands Surprise Chef and Karate Boogaloo
Available in black or yellow marbled vinyl LP, CD
Track List
1. Promise To Keep
2. Parable
3. Make You Believe
4. My Weakness
5. Time, It Won't Forget
6. Beloved
7. Change Of Heart
8. Dandelion
9. Lover's Game (In Love Again)
10. When I Fall
Pickup available at Cambridge
Usually ready in 24 hours. Unless it's a Pre-Order
Product information
Shipping
We aim to keep postage costs as low as possible while making sure your records arrive safely. All orders are packed securely using Defenda MusicMax stiff cardboard mailers, with plenty of “FRAGILE” tape, to provide the best protection in transit.
Shipping costs are calculated automatically at checkout based on the weight and destination of your order, along with packaging materials.
We send most orders via Royal Mail tracked services. For larger or heavier orders, we may use a courier service or split your order into multiple parcels to ensure it arrives safely and efficiently.
Pre-orders
Any items ordered alongside a pre-order item will be held back and posted alongside your pre-order. If you’d like them sent individually, please make separate orders.
On the subject of pre-orders, please note than release dates can change (sometimes not until the scheduled release date). Please keep an eye on our website
Returns
Returns Procedure
If you wish to cancel or return an order, you need to notify us by email (quoting your order number), and wait for us to get back to you before returning goods.
We will email you with instructions and a returns reference number. When returning items to us, you will need to take reasonable care to ensure they are not damaged in transit and that they are labelled clearly with the correct address & reference number (as provided by us) :
Relevant Record Café,
260 Mill Road
Cambridge,
CB1 3NF.
We reserve the right to not process returns sent to us without prior permission.
It’s your responsibility to retain possession and to take reasonable care of the goods in the period prior to return and until you send them back to us.
Your Right To Cancel An Order
Your right to cancel your order starts from the moment you place the order, and ends 14 days from the time you receive your order.
Non-Faulty Products
If you wish to return a product because it’s unwanted or it was ordered in error, please follow the returns procedure (see above).
We’ll happily accept a return as long as the product is still in its original shrink-wrapped packaging and is completely undamaged. You have 14 days from when you receive your order to notify us that you wish to return your order.
By opening a sealed product in any way (or using any digital download code accompanying your order), you waive your right to cancel or return your order.
Obviously we’d rather offer you store credit (in the form of a gift card), but if you’d prefer a refund, we promise to get this sorted within 14 days of receiving your return.
Please take care when ordering!
Faulty Products
If you believe you have purchased a faulty or damaged record, please follow the returns procedure (see above).
Once we receive your record, it will be tested by a member of staff in store.
If your record is deemed as faulty, you will be entitled to a refund, swap or store credit (to the same value as your initial purchase).
If this record is not deemed as faulty, we will not cover any additional postage and packaging costs incurred by either you or us, and we will not be able to offer you a refund, store credit or swap.
Basically, please be absolutely certain the record you have purchased is faulty before following the returns procedure. If possible, we suggest testing the record on different turntables and weighting the tone arm differently.
Steepletone and Crosley Record Players
After having several “faulty” records returned to us (that in actuality had nothing wrong with them), we cannot guarantee that any records we sell will play correctly Crosley or Steepletone branded record players.