Helen Ryder has released Josephine (Love Is Everything), the second single from her upcoming album Love Over Hate, due 7 November 2025.
Following on from the dreamy textures of the first single Magnetic Field in June, Josephine (Love Is Everything) reveals another side of Ryder’s evolving sound. Where Magnetic Field carried a gossamer pop elegance, Josephine draws on echoes of the Laurel Canyon era, with folk guitar guiding the verses and a subtle yet transcendent psychedelic chorus lifting the song into new territory.
For Ryder, the song is deeply personal. “‘Josephine (Love Is Everything)’ is about my mother’s adventurous personality and how she instilled a love of life and freedom in me,” Ryder explains. “It is about my mother’s brave move to a new country leaving all that she knew behind. It is about reinvention and fearlessness and ‘trusting in the greatest thing of all’ love to see you through life and its many ups and downs.”
The inspiration behind the title character, Josephine, lies in Ryder’s own family history. “The references to finding the ‘colours in between’ are two-fold,” she says. “My mother always wanted to pursue fine arts but her family became the focus, the case for so many women of her generation. I think she lived that dream by encouraging her children to be creative. She often helped me with painting and poetry by suggesting alternative views, and her phrases always struck me as being immediate for the task but also about life in general.”
Musically, Josephine (Love Is Everything) balances the earthy and the ethereal. “I wrote this on guitar, choosing to make the verses folk-like and the chorus to be a bit trippy – psychedelic in a subtle way,” Ryder says. “The bridge is a testimony to my mother’s strong values of kindness, which is how she lives her life. There was talk of leaving that section out and going all choruses but it is an important part of the song for me.”
Ryder’s forthcoming album Love Over Hate follows her 2015 debut Someday Love and the 2018 follow-up And I’ll Cry Too. Earlier this year, Noise11 reported on the release of Magnetic Field, the first taste of the new record, noting Ryder’s shift into a broader, more atmospheric palette of sound. Noise11 story here.
With Josephine (Love Is Everything) now released, Ryder continues to reveal the emotional and musical spectrum of Love Over Hate. The album promises to blend themes of resilience, freedom, and compassion with Ryder’s signature voice and a widening palette of sonic textures.
Josephine (Love Is Everything) is out today, Tuesday 2 September 2025. Love Over Hate will be released 7 November 2025. Stream it at Bandcamp.
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