Review | Heartbreak begets beauty on singer-songwriter Marlon Williams’ sophomore album
Plus, Insecure Men’s debauched pop debut and primal rhythms from Chilean psych-rockers Föllakzoid, who will play in Hong Kong on March 7
Make Way For Love
Dead Oceans
4/5 stars
As you would expect from an artist steeped in roots and blues, there are moments on Marlon Williams’ breathtaking new album that pull at the heartstrings. And when the 27-year-old Kiwi mournfully croons, on Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore, “What am I gonna do, when I can see that you been crying? / And you don’t want no help from me,” it feels like a 150kg gorilla is tugging on them (the song is a doleful duet with Aldous Harding, whose broken relationship with Williams was the catalyst for the album).
From the swirling wash of strings on cinematic opener Come to Me to Love is a Terrible Thing, a sparse piano ballad that almost trips over its own shuffling feet with agonising melancholy, Make Way For Love is driven throughout by heartbreak and despair. Recorded with his regular backing band, the Yarra Benders, Williams’ enthralling sophomore album was as much a necessity as a choice for the singer-songwriter. “More of a crime of passion, I suppose, than anything I’ve ever done,” he has said.
London Sessions
Sacred Bones
