The Perth collective led by Justin Davies has released Gold-Lined Melancholy, the third single from its forthcoming debut album Unforgettable Days.
by Paul Cashmere
Perth-based collective The Tortured Souls have released Gold-Lined Melancholy, the third single from their forthcoming debut album Unforgettable Days. Released today, August 20, the reflective song is accompanied by a music video and continues the project’s focus on memory, love, loss and the passage of time. Unforgettable Days is scheduled for November 27, marking the first full-length release from singer-songwriter Justin Davies and his assembled group of Western Australian musicians.
Gold-Lined Melancholy takes a deliberately expansive approach to Davies’ songwriting, beginning with piano, strings and organ before developing into a layered arrangement built around his vocals and narrative delivery. The song examines the relationship between painful memories and the experiences that give those memories meaning, with Davies drawing directly on places and moments from his own life.
Davies wrote the song over several days in different locations, including his home, a lakeside stop in Western Australia and a carpark overlooking the main break at Margaret River. The settings became part of the writing process, with the song developing through recollection rather than from a conventional studio session.
“Gold-Lined Melancholy was written over three or four days in the front room of my home, late at night in front of a warm fire, sitting on the banks of a lake on the way down south, and then in the carpark, at sunset, in front of the main break in Margaret River,” Davies says.
He describes the song as an attempt to translate memories and emotional experiences into melody and language. Its central idea is that difficult periods can coexist with moments of beauty, leaving behind memories that remain significant even after circumstances have changed.
The accompanying video, created with Dead As Disco, extends that idea visually. The production team has previously worked with artists including Jimmy Barnes, The Paper Kites and The Cat Empire. Davies says the video was conceived as an essential companion to the recording, using a cinematic approach to explore nostalgia, loneliness and fleeting moments.
“The film clip was an important piece to the release, the vital other half,” Davies says. “The song says what it says, but it was so important to try and capture life’s poignant moments with a video that had a depth and dreaminess within it.”
Gold-Lined Melancholy is the latest collaboration between The Tortured Souls and producer and engineer Rob Grant, whose credits include work with Tame Impala, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Josh Homme. Grant has been involved throughout the making of Unforgettable Days, with recording taking place at Perth’s Poons Head Studio.
For Davies, the studio environment became part of the album’s aesthetic. Its collection of vintage equipment and instruments contributed to the project’s deliberately nostalgic sound, while the sessions brought together musicians from across Perth’s music community.
Among the players involved are drummer Malcolm Clark and bassist Jay Cortez, both formerly of The Sleepy Jackson, alongside musicians from the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. The result is an album that moves between pop, soulful rock, country influences and more orchestral arrangements.
Davies came to the project after spending decades concentrating on business and philanthropic work. His return to songwriting followed a difficult period in his personal life and became a means of processing grief and memories. What began as a private creative exercise developed into The Tortured Souls after the songs were recorded and Davies began working with Grant.
The project’s first single, Unforgettable Days, introduced the album’s emphasis on nostalgia and lost love. No Tomorrows followed, expanding the sound through Hammond organ and a more pronounced rhythmic foundation. The two songs have collectively established an audience ahead of the full album, with Unforgettable Days exceeding 400,000 Spotify streams and No Tomorrows passing 240,000 streams, according to the supplied release information.
Unforgettable Days is structured as a broad survey of Davies’ influences and songwriting interests. Never One To Love explores heartbreak, while Stay combines acoustic guitar and strings. No Tomorrows incorporates organ-driven textures, Had No Time takes a more intimate approach, and Walk With Me moves towards country storytelling. Say Goodbye, Promises and Take Me Back continue the album’s exploration of separation and memory before I Felt The Sun provides a more uplifting conclusion and Coda closes the record with piano.
Davies says the varied musical styles are connected by a common emotional thread.
“If there was one theme that ran through all the songs, regardless of their style and influences, it would be that of nostalgia and longing and most of all love lived and lost,” he says.
That approach places Gold-Lined Melancholy within the broader identity of The Tortured Souls, a project built around the idea that songwriting can preserve experiences that have otherwise disappeared. Davies cites artists including Lou Reed, Nina Simone, Nick Drake and David Bowie as reference points, while the album also draws on country, blues and late 1960s and early 1970s songwriting traditions.
The release of Gold-Lined Melancholy gives The Tortured Souls a third chapter in the lead-up to Unforgettable Days. Rather than introducing a significant stylistic departure, the single reinforces the project’s established emphasis on atmosphere, detailed arrangements and autobiographical storytelling.
For Davies, the song occupies a particularly important place within the forthcoming album.
“Releasing Gold-Lined Melancholy feels like the appropriate introduction for the release of the album,” he says. “It was one of the first couple of songs written and is very much a reflection of how my life has always felt and still feels.”
Gold-Lined Melancholy is out today. Unforgettable Days is scheduled for release on November 27.
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