Natalie Evans - "Movements" (LP: Dark Red)

2017's You Could Be A Cop EP is certainly great, but too much stuck in the past is also a problem.

Natalie Evans' 2018 solo album Better At Night was a great acoustic/folk-emo album, but in 2022, her completed album Movements is, in a sense, a more universal “song” album that breaks through the somewhat minor (some would say nerdy) genres of EMO and mash-rock. In a sense, “Movements” seems to have broken through the ranks of such minor (some would say geek) music genres as EMO and mass rock, and sublimated into a more universal “song” work.

The title suggests that the work was clearly influenced by the world situation after the Corona disaster, but I think this was a problem that all art, not just music, like it or not, but EMO, which sings about one's private thoughts and feelings and cohabits with others, faces. Alone, that may be a little different from solitude, but the scenery sung in these songs are all alone, although you may be with someone else in the reminiscences. Perhaps that is why the roaring guitar sounds and band sounds of the “You Could Be A Cop” period were unnecessary, and the technical guitar arrangements of the “Better At Night” period have disappeared, replaced by the minimal expression necessary for her personal mental sketches. Instead, she has kept her expression to the minimum necessary for her own personal emotional sketches. In short, the last track “Guest Room” remained empty until the end of the album, which makes us wonder who would come to the empty room, just like Masatoshi Majima. The title of “Movements” is a record of a time when we were stuck, and perhaps that is what this is about.

While having its roots in the EMO music genre, it is no longer a work that stays there, and its approach to indie music without being too maniacal while maintaining universality can be described as Phoebe Brigers-like, with EMO-like elements coming from the opposite side. It is not going to throw a stone at indie music, which has become a huge industry, but I think there are times when pop music made with a sense of distance and temperature like Natalie's is necessary.

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Dark Red盤、DLコードはありません。

2017年のYou Could Be A CopのEPは確かに素晴らしいが過去に囚われ過ぎるのも問題。2018年のNatalieのソロ作『Better At Night』は素晴らしいアコースティック/フォークエモ・アルバムでしたが、2022年の現在、彼女が完成させたアルバム『Movements』はある意味そういったEMOやマスロックといったややマイナー(オタクとも言う)向けの音楽ジャンルの層を突き抜け、より普遍的な"歌"な作品へと昇華されたように見える。

明らかにコロナ禍の世界情勢の影響を受けた作品となっているのはタイトルからも察するが、これは個人のプライベートな想いを歌いながら、他人と寄り添うEMOという音楽に限らず、あらゆるアートが好む好まざるに関わらず直面する問題だったと思う。一人、それは孤独とは少し違うのかもしれないが、追憶の中では誰かと一緒にいるかもしれないがこれらの楽曲で歌われる景色はどれも一人のもの。だからこそ、なのかもしれないが、You Could Be A Cop期のような轟音のギターサウンドやバンドサウンドは不要だったのかもしれないし、『Better At Night』期のようなテクニカルなギターアレンジも影を潜め、替わりに彼女個人の奥にある心象スケッチのために必要最小限な表現を貫いている。要するにラストトラック「Guest Room」は最後まで空室のままだったということで、真島昌利ばりに空室には誰がやってくるのだろうという気持ちにもなる。動けなかった時代の記録としてのタイトルが『Movements』、そういうことなのかもしれない。

EMOという音楽ジャンルをルーツに持ちながらもそこに留まる作品ではなくなってきているし、普遍性を保ちながらマニアック過ぎずにインディー音楽に寄り添う姿勢は、逆サイドからEMO的な要素を感じさせるPhoebe Brigers的とも言える。そもそも商業化し過ぎているインディー音楽に対して、もはや巨大産業になってるあちら側に一石を投じることにはならないだろうけれど、Natalieくらいの距離感や温度感で作られるポップスが必要な場面もあるとは思うのですよ。

tracklist:
1. Driving Home Late
2. Between the Ground and Sky
3. Movie
4. Pencil Drawn
5. Interlude (Back of My Mind)
6. Colours Fade
7. Sun Song
8. Under the Moon
9. When You Leave
10. To Go On
11. Five Positives
12. Guest Room