Listen To “Black and White Badge” HERE

Today, Sally Potter shares “Black and White Badge,” the latest preview of her debut album Pink Bikini, set to release on July 14. Renowned for her exceptional talent as an award-winning film director, with notable works including the Oscar-nominated Orlando (1992), The Party (2017), and The Roads Not Taken (2020), Potter explains that Pink Bikini “chronicles some of the key moments of the turbulent female years of transition from childhood to young adulthood that I experienced growing up in the 1960s in London.” 

“Black and White Badge” tells the story of a young girl who is deeply concerned about the threat of nuclear apocalypse. She dreams of a world without violence and destruction but is haunted by the fear of the bomb falling. Performed in the manner of a 60s yé-yé ballad, it’s a masterful juxtaposition of a child’s naivete and the very real dangers of a world on the brink — an interplay that repeats itself in the 21st century as children learn about the threat to their planet from climate change. 

Listen to “Black and White Badge” here. 

Earlier this month, Potter released the album’s lead single and title track “Pink Bikini” which draws on the freewheeling spirit of her musical legacy and the ‘tell all’ nature of the album as a whole.

Says Potter:  “This song is based on actual events. When I was 16, I really did see a pink bikini in a shop window on the way to Victoria Station... Later, in the South of France, badly sunburned in my fruitless attempt to get a tan, I went to the local disco and afterwards “lay on the evening sand” with a French boy. It seemed romantic but led to trouble and despair as I experienced the cruel double standards of the time." 

Listen To Lead Single “Pink Bikini” Here

On Pink Bikini, Potter’s song-writing talents are quickly evident — one hears shades of Leonard Cohen, Françoise Hardy, Scott Walker, Marianne Faithfull and even more modern voices from Pete Doherty to Weyes Blood. While she’s accompanied by an assortment of collaborators — including guitarist extraordinaire Fred Frith (Robert Wyatt, Brian Eno), whose uniquely haunting sound has appeared on nearly all of Potter’s films from Orlando onwards — the vision is distinctively hers. 

Pre-order Pink Bikini here.