Orla Gartland’s songwriting is full of heat and humour. Intestine-punch couplets sit alongside brilliantly witty quips, and the Irish musician creates tracks full of private realisations that lay herself naked, whereas all the time remaining in on the joke.
Since first rising on YouTube in her early teenagers, the Dublin-born, London-based artist has gained over followers with this personable model of songwriting. From the earnest admission on 2015’s fizzing nugget of Two Door Cinema-inflected indie-pop ‘Lonely Individuals’ (the titular observe of certainly one of Gartland’s earliest EPs) to the conversational supply of traces like “Life is brief till it’s not/Truthfully, it’s kinda lengthy” in ‘You’re Not Particular, Babe’ – a spotlight of 2021 debut document ‘Lady On The Web’ – her razor-sharp pen has prevailed.
It continues to persist in Gartland’s newest document, ‘Everyone Wants A Hero’. Take ‘Kiss Ur Face Endlessly’ – an explosion of pop-punk riffs and half-spoken come-ons. Within the electrical bridge, she teases: “Let’s play a recreation of emotional Monopoly within the identify of monogamy/Partitions down and, now, there’s no stopping me.” It’s a frank evaluation of flourishing romance and the indecision of going all in, however simply in case there have been any doubts, she makes her intentions completely clear: “I need the burden of you on prime of me”.
This distinct method is a thread all through Gartland’s second album: even the title ‘Everyone Wants A Hero’ performs into it. For the LP, she attracts on themes of womanhood and, as she defined to NME earlier this yr, it explores “ladies doing all of it”, navigating a life the place you weigh up the selection between having a profession, a social life and being somebody’s accomplice, and select the lot. Working in parallel to that is the comical picture of Gartland as a “self-appointed hero”, summing up the document’s themes in what she phrases “fairly a slapstick approach”.
It’s an exploration of life as each a person and in a relationship, wanting on the tightrope you stroll as a girl and the way it can affect each facet of your life. Or, as she sums up on the aptly titled document opener, ‘Each Can Be True’: “I fucking love you/However this shit is tough.”
The album additionally sees Gartland dive additional into the manufacturing world. Whereas she co-produced her debut, with its follow-up, she wished to “take the reins much more [and] be a bit bolder”. Impressed by multifaceted artists like St. Vincent, Gartland took the songs from their earliest kernels, via manufacturing, and onto the ultimate merchandise with accompanying visuals.
These manufacturing decisions lead to wider sonic worlds, with style used as a automobile to bolster lyrical content material. ‘Backseat Driver’ – a takedown of intrusive ideas that sees Gartland demand: “Shut up backseat driver, this has gone too far/You’ve taken up sufficient area, now get out of my automotive” – is a driving slab of indie sleaze, full with LCD Soundsystem-evoking cowbells and a stonking bassline. The euphoric refrain is the sound of driving quick with the home windows down, its rocked-up instrumentals and belted vocals capturing the anger of the lyrics.
Elsewhere there’s Counting Crows-laced alt-rock (‘Easy’), late noughties British indie (‘Late To The Celebration’), Kasabian and Royal Blood-adjacent rock (‘Three Phrases Away’), and beautiful lilting indie à la Clairo or Beabadoobee (‘Who Am I?’). The customarily high-octane panorama Gartland creates means extra subdued cuts just like the waltzing ‘Mine’ or the title observe wrestle to chop via, however the switch-up works for ‘The Hit’, a lush earworm of dancing acoustic guitars and beautiful vocal melodies.
‘Everyone Wants A Hero’ lives in gray areas, not shying away from the messiness of life. The ground-shaking ‘Sound Of Letting Go’, all feral riffs and ethereal choruses of layered vocals, distils this concept. Finally, it concludes, you possibly can’t management every little thing, the musician unveiling: “I can’t change you, can’t change me/Can’t change something/So I suppose I gotta let it go.” From the place we’re standing, it doesn’t sound like Gartland wants to alter a factor.
Particulars:
- Launch date: October 4, 2024
- Report label: New Pals Music
