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Review: Nadine’s Oh My is a homage to art-pop

Nadine’s full-length debut album, Oh My,” is filled with minimalistic lyrics and soft, hazy sounds. The band, Nadine, consists of lead singer Nadia Hulett, Julian Fader and Carlos Hernandez (Ava Luna). The album emphasizes Hulett’s voice and free-spirited lyrics.

Oh My album cover (courtesy of father/daughter records)

Hulett’s unique songwriting is transformed into a playful form of pop poetry. “Oh My” shows the band’s willingness to delve into art-pop inspired and funky indie rock. The trio takes on a harmonic, chaotic rhythm throughout the album, setting the album’s tone from the first song, “Nook.”

“Pew” was used to showcase Nadine’s distinct sound– a sound reminiscent of the boppy drum cadence featured in the Peter Bjorn and John song “Young Folks,” that’s so popular it’s in a Google commercial.

Track eight, “Contigo,” is a clear album break, but after that, the album just kind of falls flat.

Although it’s clear Nadine purposefully used very simple sounds and lyrics to elevate Hulett’s voice, it doesn’t do well for those who are first-time listeners trying to understand the band’s identity.

At various points in the album, it sounds like Hernandez and Fader are on a completely different planet from Hulett. Nadine is comprised of members from two bands with different sounds, this could explain why Oh My doesn’t sound as unanimous or cohesive. Hulett, who is a member of Phantom Posse introduced some of the sleepy sounds heard in Phantom Posse’s album Be There to the collaborative project and Hernandez, and Fader brought Ava Luna’s signature up beat indie art funk. The trio also recorded the album in a couple different locations, which also may have influenced the albums sound. When recording the album in New York Hulett moved to Austin, Tx and the band recorded tracks for the album at Dripping Springs studio. All of this can be attributed to the albums unique and almost disorderly sound. Which is especially prevalent in “Little Self in the Garden.”

 

“Oh My” also has a lot of empty spaces, which the band tries to fill with spontaneous bursts of noise. This can be credited to Hernandez and Faders background in Art pop where random instrumental blasts are common.

Verdict: 6/10

Overall, for a debut album, Nadine did a decent job. There are very obvious bouts of creativity, but overall the album feels empty. If you want a minimalistic art-pop album to inspire and refresh, “Oh My” is right up your alley. Although the album was slightly underwhelming, it was still good. I give the debut a solid six points out of ten.

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