Emma Louise’s newly announced fourth album, Sunshine for Happiness, is due out 1 May via Future Classic. Alongside the announcement, she has shared a new single, ‘God Between Us‘, and it is the kind of song that feels like it is reaching for something bigger than a neat little pop catharsis. Tender, spiritual, bruised, but still glowing.
Which, frankly, is a pretty compelling lane to live in.
‘God Between Us’ feels quietly huge
Built around rich piano and airy instrumentation, ‘God Between Us’ gives us an early sense of where Sunshine for Happiness is heading. It is intimate, but not small. Vulnerable, but not collapsing under its own sadness. There is a warmth to it, even when it is brushing up against pain.
Emma Louise describes the song like this:
“’God Between Us’ is about how love is underneath everything, no matter if it’s good or bad. It’s in both the creation of, and the destruction of everything.”
That line gets to the heart of what makes this rollout interesting. It sounds like someone trying to make peace with life being beautiful and devastating at the same time, which is, unfortunately, very relatable.
The official video for ‘God Between Us’ was shot by Sam Kristofski on 16mm film, with footage captured in Hawaii, Los Angeles, and at Emma’s property in Australia. It even includes scenes filmed in front of the active Kīlauea volcano.
Sunshine for Happiness comes from a fragile place
The story behind the album is heavy, and Emma Louise has been open about it.
The record began back in 2020, during what she describes as the lowest point of her life. After releasing Lilac Everything in 2018, she felt burnt out, isolated, and close to walking away from music entirely. During a severe mental health crisis, she checked herself into hospital in Los Angeles.
Inside the hospital was a piano. That became the beginning of Sunshine for Happiness.
The songs that followed reportedly centre on love, healing, longing, and the kind of clarity that sometimes only turns up after everything else has fallen apart.
That could have made for a very bleak album. Instead, this is being framed as something luminous, moving through the darkness.
A breakdown, a breakthrough, and a whole lot of life in between
In the years since recording Sunshine for Happiness, Emma Louise has married, become a mother, and divorced. That means these songs are arriving after a whole stretch of life has reshaped around them.
There is something compelling about that. They sound like the work of someone who has had time to sit with what happened, what changed, and what survived.
She has brought in a top creative team
The album was created with Tobias Jesso Jr. and Shawn Everett, which is a pretty formidable combination.
Jesso’s credits include Olivia Dean, Harry Styles, Justin Bieber, Dua Lipa, and HAIM, while Everett has worked with Miley Cyrus, Kacey Musgraves, Maggie Rogers, and Hozier. That does not guarantee greatness, obviously, but it does suggest Sunshine for Happiness has been built with real care.
Also worth noting: This arrives fresh off Dumb, Emma Louise’s collaborative album with Flume, so she is coming into this release with recent momentum, but in a very different emotional register.
Sunshine for Happiness tracklist
Here is the full tracklist as provided in the press materials:
- ‘Beggar’
- ‘Nothing Could Tear Us Apart’
- ‘God Between Us’
- ‘Bahía de Banderas’
- ‘Dust’
- ‘All Beautiful Things’
- ‘Trigger Of A Gun’
- ‘Holy Holy’
- ‘Through Love We See The World’
- ‘The Absence Of You’
- ‘Medicine’
- ‘It’s Hard To Say Goodbye’
There is a lot going on in those titles alone. Some sound devotional. Some sound devastating. One sounds like it is about to mentally elbow-drop me through a table. Healthy mix.
Album Info
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Artist | Emma Louise |
| Album | Sunshine for Happiness |
| Release Date | 1 May 2026 |
| Label | Future Classic |
| New Single | ‘God Between Us’ |
| Video Director | Sam Kristofski |
| Producers / Collaborators | Tobias Jesso Jr., Shawn Everett |
| Previous Release Mentioned | Dumb with Flume |
Availability, captions, and format options can vary by platform, region, and distributor. Check official artist and label pages for the most current details.
Watch the Official Video
TLDR;
- Emma Louise has announced her fourth album, Sunshine for Happiness
- The album arrives on 1 May 2026 via Future Classic
- New single ‘God Between Us’ is out now
- The record was born from a deeply personal period of burnout, crisis, and recovery
- The official video was shot by Sam Kristofski on 16mm film across Hawaii, Los Angeles, and Australia
- Listen to ‘God Between Us‘
- Pre-save Sunshine for Happiness
Stay unruly.
