NTTR - No Time to Review

Nessa Barrett – Tough Love — 64/100 Tough Love works mainly because it has a clear atmosphere and because Nessa Barrett commits completely to it. The whole album sits in that space between dark pop, pop rock, dreamier alt-pop and a slightly gothic, decadent aesthetic. It is polished, compact and easy to listen to, and there are enough guitars, organs and darker textures to stop it from feeling completely generic. What I like is that the album has a real identity from beginning to end. Even when the songs are not especially strong, they belong to the same world. There is a visual and sonic consistency here that makes the album feel more complete than a simple collection of singles. And at around 34 minutes, it never really has time to become annoying or repetitive. “Bad Girls Never Die” is my favourite track. It has more attitude and more immediate personality than most of the album. The hook works, the darker pop-rock energy is stronger, and it feels less passive than some of the mo...

There is a lot to like here. Gåte manage to mix Norwegian folk, metal, electronics and more ritualistic material without making the album feel like a collection of genre exercises. The traditional instruments are not just decoration either. They are really part of the writing, and that gives Sigil a much stronger identity than a lot of folk-metal albums. Gunnhild Sundli is probably the main reason it works so well for me. Her voice has enough character to hold together some quite different ideas, from the heavier material to the more atmospheric and almost ceremonial moments. The album can move from something like “Oskorsreia” , which is much more direct and metallic, to “Jostedalsrypa” , which ends the record in a much quieter and more fragile way, and it still feels coherent. “Oskorsreia” is my favourite track. It has the strongest balance between the folk identity of Gåte and the heavier side of the album. The guitars have more bite, the rhythm has more urgency, and the whole trac...

There is a lot I like here. Ora Cogan has built a very specific little world somewhere between psychedelic folk, gothic Americana and dream-pop, with enough strange details to make the album feel like more than another hazy singer-songwriter record. The pedal steel, organ, strings, guitars and occasional synth textures give the songs a dark, slightly unreal atmosphere, and her voice fits that perfectly. It is restrained, sometimes almost ghostly, but never anonymous. What works best for me is when the album moves away from simple mood and actually starts to shift underneath you. “Outgrowing” is my favourite track for exactly that reason. It has a slightly jazzy, less predictable flow and feels more alive than some of the more static songs around it. “Division” also works very well, especially because of the way it slowly opens up, while “The Smoke” is probably one of the strongest examples of the album’s darker side. The main issue is that I probably like the sound of Hard Hearted Wom...

Trixies has a great backstory. Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook wrote the material in 1974, before Squeeze had really become Squeeze, shelved it because the music was too complicated for them to play properly at the time, then returned to it more than fifty years later.  As an idea, that is irresistible. As an album, it is more mixed. “What More Can I Say” is a good opener because the current band gives the song a sophistication the teenage version probably could not have had. There is an easy late-night quality to it, and the melody is strong enough that I do not need the concept to enjoy it. “You Get the Feeling” continues that atmosphere, softer and smoother, almost lounge-like in places. They are probably the two songs where the record sounds most naturally like mature Squeeze rather than old material being reconstructed. “The Place We Call Mars” is more obviously a period piece. Bowie is everywhere in the vocal phrasing and guitar language, which is entertaining but also tell...

Remember The Humans is pleasant, carefully arranged and unmistakably Broken Social Scene, but I keep waiting for it to become more than that. The band still knows how to create a full, organic sound. “Not Around Anymore” opens with enough detail to suggest that the album might slowly expand into something large, and the horns, guitars and layered vocals are handled with real care. But the songwriting underneath is quite modest. The arrangement keeps developing while the central idea stays fairly static. “Only The Good I Keep” and “Mission Accomplished (Kingfisher)” are good examples of the problem. Both are perfectly listenable, both have little instrumental details I enjoy, but neither leaves much behind once it ends. I hear the collective texture more clearly than I hear a memorable song. “The Call” has more energy, and “Relief” comes closer to the old Broken Social Scene feeling of everything suddenly lifting together. Those are moments where the density feels justified rather than...

The Singer in My Band is the kind of album I can listen to without resistance, but that is also part of the problem. Almost everything is agreeable. The guitars are warm, the banjo is tasteful, the vocals are intimate, and the songs are short enough that none of them becomes irritating. But very little really catches. “I Will Eat My Heart in the Morning Light” is a good example. The melody is pleasant, the arrangement is clean, and the track sets the tone quickly. But once it ends, I do not retain much beyond the general warmth. “Oh No Now My” is more interesting because the guitars become rougher and the Alex G influence is more obvious, which gives the song some friction. NME also points to that shift. “Billy Came Back” is catchy enough, but it feels like a well-made song in a style I already know rather than something with a strong identity of its own. “Watching Heaven Fall” leans more clearly into bluegrass, helped by Amos’ family background and his father’s banjo playing. That...