Sarah Mary Chadwick - Flourish 2xLP w/80pg Book (Pre-Order)

Grapefruit Records is proud to announce the release of Flourish, Sarah Mary Chadwick’s 11th studio record, out November 13th, 2026. It’s a sprawling, 180-minute double album which does what the best double albums attempt to do--take us on a journey with a cinematic arc in kodachrome honesty. In this case it’s a hero's journey as Flourish is furious, feminist, funny and occasionally danceable as it documents a near paralysingly difficult year.

While spoken word and hiphop is a departure for Chadwick, her literate lyricism invites us to challenge what we think we know about her as a songwriter. It is equal parts Death Grips, Kim Gordon, Earl Sweatshirt and Girls On Fire. In a masterclass of songwriting she uses women’s hairstyles as a metaphor for how talented women are depicted as dangerous or crazy, “Change your hair, ask for the Anne Sexton…..Ask for the Sylvia Plath, you’ll look good with that…Get your hair done fresh, ask for the Anne Heche.” She also name-checks Janet Frame, DMX, and transforms Stephen Crane’s famous line into “because it is glitter, because it is my heart.”

Musically, it’s DIY and scrappy as Chadwick recorded, mixed and mastered the album herself at home while figuring out how to get the fried sounds and sonic plunderphonics necessary for her dive into a new musical language. One can hear the pure joy of discovery she finds in looping and sampling and spitting out lyrics in a new way. She is playful, vengeful and confessional twirling the idiom in her freshly manicured hand like a shiny disco ball.

The record details and deconstructs Chadwick’s recovery from an abusive relationship, a life event that is dwarfed by the powerful rhetoric around a woman’s experience and violence towards women. A la The Guerilla Girls, her feminist ferocity is palpable and liberating as she takes swipes at pop culture and the patriarchy with humor and withering wit. Chadwick is never one to shy away from discomfort and the song, Lavender, is a brutal account of a high school girl murdered by her abusive boyfriend. Sonically dissonant, the track counterpoints a constant drone while bass slithers like fear through the background with jarring high notes punched in to emphasize the nauseating violence of the subject matter. To quote Chadwick, ‘Guns don’t kill people, men do.’

The songs are brash and profound when illuminating the challenges of surviving myriad traumas in order to flourish as a woman in a world that attempts to tear women down. The pain is there, but also the insistence on writing one’s own story. By inviting and chiding and ferocious rhyme dropping, SMC shows us common ground and asks us to step into the fight. These stories are not Chadwick’s alone. Ever fended off an unwanted advance, been spoken to with leering condescension? The stories are as universal as they are personal, and yes, political. She may have her share of conditions but by her own declaration, “I am an idea of a person but it’s just such a fucking good idea.” With Flourish Chadwick has managed to do what she always does--turn out a brand new record and create something truly wonderful out of her mire.