Following the whispered triumph of her latest single 'Shells', Hannah McKittrick returns with the gut-wrenchingly vulnerable song 'Perfect Struggler'; a dark and courageously personal depiction of growing weary under the weight of anger and loss. Equipped with growling guitars and a mournful vocal, 'Perfect Struggler' is the gasps of air one takes when drowning.

Written in one cathartic outpouring sitting crosslegged on her bed, McKittrick says 'Perfect Struggler' was created in a rare instant. She skilfully weaves relatable themes of heartbreak and suffering at another's hands; '... nauseous / when I hear your name called out across the supermarket aisle' interwoven with pearls of deeply personal lyrics, singing '... nauseous / when I see your posture echoed in the shape of my heartbroken brother'. She says "This song is the feeling to me of things falling apart and deciding whether to repair the broken pieces or let them slip through the widening gap between your cupped palms."

To record the song, Hannah and producer Theo Carbo (Barney McCall, BUMPY) travelled to a small decommissioned church out of Castlemaine for the promise of its high vaulted ceilings and the acoustic dimensions it offered. They later added a multi-dimensional drum part from Ollie Cox (Maple Glider, Phoebe Go, Armlock) and ambient piano processed through a tape machine to create a lush bed for the stark emotionality of the song's core to rest on. Sitting somewhere at the intersection between ambient, alternative rock and indie-folk, 'Perfect Struggler' is an illustration someone pursuing healing through gritted teeth.

'Perfect Struggler' was recorded on the stolen land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging, as well as all elders of neighbouring Indigenous communities across so called 'Australia'. Sovereignty was never ceded and this always was and always will be Aboriginal land.