“With a voice that can shift from quiet vulnerability to soaring intensity, Sacha Mullin makes pop music feel unpredictable, personal, and full of life.”

Sacha Mullin has never really been an artist that’s going to stay in one place for long. Throughout his previous records he’s wandered around the various territories of art rock, jazz, experimental and pop, crafting a sound that is as much about his technical prowess as it is about his willingness to take risks. Social Touch, his fourth album and out now on 19th October 2026, is a more direct step into the pop realm without in any way abandoning the eccentricities and emotional core that have defined his work to date. It’s a new phase for an artist who is still very much in the process of pushing himself and whose songwriting on this record is more immediate and accessible than ever. “Hypocenter” is the album’s lead single and is the most obvious indicator of the new direction. It’s a very much more energetic piece of music and is the first real glimpse of the poppy sound that Mullin was keen to explore on the record. It also features Emily Bindiger again on the backing vocals (she’s been a collaborator on various projects with Leonard Cohen and Cowboy Bebop). Her voice adds another layer to the vocal arrangements and is part of a relationship that has developed over the years. Mullin has a history of not just adding a backing vocal but of building the arrangement around the particularity of the singer’s voice and that’s a big part of what makes his music so distinctive.

Mullin’s voice is still one of his greatest assets. He can move from a very controlled, intimate kind of singing to moments of real intensity and that gives his performances a real sense of movement which is more than just the melody. He’s been likened to David Sylvian and Jeff Buckley and his influences range from Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell to Geike Arnaert. That breadth of influence is probably what accounts for his desire to combine the best of songwriting with some rather adventurous arrangements. On Social Touch that instinct is applied in a more direct pop context and that provides a route for the listener to engage with the songs without in any way sacrificing the rather unusual musical detail that is so characteristic of his work. The album was produced by William Parker Wood and comes after Casino Wilderness Period (Mullin’s highly regarded 2023 release which was reviewed by NPR, EARMILK, The Big Takeover and PROG Magazine). Rather than simply go down the same route as that record he’s decided to take a different path. That openness to change has been a hallmark of his solo output (Whelm 2013, Duplex 2017) with each record being a different musical environment in which to explore the interplay of vocals, songwriting and instrumentation. The second single “Bed All Day” continues the album campaign and also opens up a different facet of Mullin’s musicality. Chicago multi-instrumentalist DJ Zeetus Lapetus has done a dance version of the track which is a very playful space disco. It’s a great example of the creative links that exist within the Chicago music scene where you can have artists from all sorts of different genres and still find a common thread without having to lose your own individuality. The album also has some extra material on the CD and the digital versions with “Let’s Cruise” and “Tall Ask” both being bonus tracks and a William Parker Wood remix of “Tears Into Platinum” is due for the digital release.

Beyond the recordings he’s done, Mullin has spent over 20 years honing his craft as a vocalist, songwriter, collaborator and educator. He was doing professional studio work at 15 recording vocals remotely for a Japanese project. He’s worked in all sorts of different musical contexts over the years. His recognition in the Chicago Reader’s Best of Chicago (Best Pop Artist and Best Music Teacher in 2024) is a reflection of that diverse body of work. His work as an educator is very much in line with his approach to performance, which is to emphasise listening, emotional communication and the relationship between technique and expression. With Social Touch Sacha Mullin brings the same adventurousness of his earlier work to a more direct pop songwriting approach. It’s not an album that suggests he’s giving up on experimentation at all. Quite the reverse in fact, it’s an album where he’s found new ways of using his voice and his ideas in a more accessible way. For those who are discovering him for the first time it’s a very accessible entry point. For those who’ve been following his previous albums it’s another example of an artist who is completely at ease in changing direction and yet is always true to his instincts. Social Touch is a significant new step in his development and it really brings his voice into its own, whilst still leaving plenty of room for the unexpected.