Album: Warm Chris
Artist: Aldous Harding
Genre: #Indie #Alternative #Folk
Sub-Genres: #IndiePop #AlternativeFolk
Label: 4AD
Non-Airable Tracks: N/A
Description: As a long time fan of Aldous Harding, this album blew my love for her out of the water. It was released on my birthday and, naturally, earned the spot of the best present I received. This album captures Harding’s essence so perfectly. From her debut self-titled album up to Warm Chris, she has become increasingly playful, loose, and comfortable. This album is her at her most confident and weird. She takes her versatile voice to all of its bounds, a high falsetto to a low bass, a sharp almost-twang to a wonky deep accent, a serious softness to a weird playfulness. Warm Chris seems to accumulate all of the tones of her three previous albums, yet manages to feel completely fresh and different. That is what makes Warm Chris the essential Aldous Harding album. It captures her spirit and her creativity at its peak, thus far. I would recommend this album to anyone who wants to have a good time, a fun drive, or to play around with their own voice capabilities. It is a very fresh, springtime album that brought me back to life. I always have some lyrics from this album stuck in my head. The first ones that got stuck and still aren't quite out are the first lines of “Passion Babe.” I love her clever writing and delivery of “Well, you know I’m married, and I was bored out of my mind/Of all the ways to eat a cake, this one surely takes the knife…” that unfolds into a song that epitomizes the flip-flopped-ness of this album, summed up by her flip-flopping of the idiom “takes the cake.” Of all of Harding’s albums, I would say Warm Chris “takes the knife,” but I would not recommend a newcomer listen to it first. If you want to fully understand Harding’s evolution, listening to her albums in the order of release truly paints a clear picture of how she found the sound she has today. Each album meshes together into the next one like a perfect puzzle.
Sounds Like:
Cate Le Bon
Angel Olsen
Big Thief
Recommended Tracks:
Fever
Passion Babe
Leathery Whip
Honorable Mentions: Warm Chris, She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain
Reviewer’s Name: Carly Markovich
Date of Review: April 19, 2022