- 2nd album, out now
- 12 tracks, 39 minutes
- 1st time she’s played a show solo
- Naarm where she’s based now
A month ago at BIGSOUND in Brisbane, Sycco played a “secret” pop-up to mark her single I’ve Loved & I’ve Lost. It ended up on the back of a truck in a commercial car park, packed out, with Sasha McLeod performing solo for the first time. That gig turned out to be the trailer for Look Up, her second album, which came out on 2 October through Future Classic.
McLeod is a First Nations artist and producer, now based in Naarm/Melbourne, and this record is a very different animal to 2024’s J Award-winning Zorb. Zorb was a share-house party, with Flume and Mallrat dropping in. Look Up was recorded mostly on a farm on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula with co-producer Oscar Sharah, and most of the psychedelia has been sent home. What’s left is her voice, up close, over drums she built herself. Her long-time collaborator Chrome Sparks is still in the credits, sending extra touches from LA.
Hiding under a desk
She wrote it while falling in love and, in her words, quietly unravelling at the same time. “This album feels private, as if I’m hiding under a desk singing these songs because they feel so vulnerable,” she says. “At the same time, it feels like I’ve just been to therapy, such a release. It’s about feeling in transit and displaced, yearning for someone or a place, never feeling settled. This album isn’t about reaching a conclusion: it’s about what it feels like to figure it out.”
That last line is the bit I keep coming back to. For anyone whose brain refuses to resolve things on schedule, an album that sits in the not-knowing is a strangely comforting thing to put on. She’s called it “a choose-your-own-adventure album”, and her listening instructions are specific: lying on a bed with headphones on and your eyes shut, on a plane, or outside somewhere green. She describes the whole thing as a hug from nature, which is a lovely way to think about a record you can also hear in EA SPORTS FC 27. The title track is in the game and went straight onto triple j and FBi rotation, so if you’ve heard it while yelling at a virtual referee, that’s why.
The Tracklist
Twelve songs in 39 minutes. I’ve Loved and I’ve Lost is the one she’s described as Phil Collins-inspired, and Tell Me When You’re Home has a new visualiser to go with it.
- Up and She Go
- Look Up
- All That I’ve Been Feeling
- Mileage
- Wait Up
- She Get It
- Hunny
- I’ve Loved and I’ve Lost
- Time and Time Again
- Tell Me When You’re Home
- Information
- Won’t Say Love
Side Quest What Is a Zorb, Anyway?
A zorb is one of those giant inflatable balls you roll down hills inside. Sycco borrowed the word for her debut to describe the handful of people you let in close. It came out of the on-and-off COVID lockdowns, when you could only have a certain number of people over. By her own account, as told in the notes that run with the album, she coined it while on acid.
Catching it live
There’s no tour yet. Since the truck, she’s been playing free pop-ups in odd places, including petrol stations and record stores in Melbourne and Sydney, and she’s said she wants to tour with the band in summer. The pop-ups are announced at short notice on her socials, and so far they’ve been outdoors and standing, so bring whatever you need for a car park at night. We’ll add dates here when a proper run is announced, and update the access info once venues are confirmed.
Album Info
| What | Look Up |
| Artist | Sycco (Sasha McLeod) |
| Label | Future Classic |
| Release Date | 2 October 2026 |
| Formats | Streaming, CD, translucent vinyl |
| Length | 12 tracks, 39 minutes |
| Produced by | Sycco and Oscar Sharah, with Chrome Sparks |
| Genre | Pop, with soul and electronic edges |
Where to find it
- Look Up is on all the usual streaming services.
- Translucent vinyl at JB Hi-Fi
Put it on the way she tells you to. Headphones, eyes shut, somewhere nobody can reach you for 39 minutes. It won’t tell you how any of it turns out.
Stay unruly.
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