Orla Gartland – ‘Everyone Wants A Hero’ album evaluation

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 received 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 Folks’ (the titular observe of one in every of Gartland’s earliest EPs) to the conversational supply of traces like “Life is brief till it’s not/Actually, it’s kinda lengthy” in ‘You’re Not Particular, Babe’ – a spotlight of 2021 debut report ‘Girl On The Web’ – her razor-sharp pen has prevailed.

It continues to persist in Gartland’s newest report, ‘Everyone Wants A Hero’. Take ‘Kiss Ur Face Ceaselessly’ – 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 title 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 would like 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 “girls 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. Operating in parallel to that is the comical picture of Gartland as a “self-appointed hero”, summing up the report’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 lady and the way it can influence each side of your life. Or, as she sums up on the aptly titled report 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 needed 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, by means of manufacturing, and onto the ultimate merchandise with accompanying visuals.

These manufacturing decisions end in wider sonic worlds, with style used as a car 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 house, 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 Get together’), Kasabian and Royal Blood-adjacent rock (‘Three Phrases Away’), and beautiful lilting indie à la Clairo or Beabadoobee (‘Who Am I?’). The usually high-octane panorama Gartland creates means extra subdued cuts just like the waltzing ‘Mine’ or the title observe wrestle to chop by means of, however the switch-up works for ‘The Hit’, a lush earworm of dancing acoustic guitars and lovely 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’ll be able to’t management all the pieces, 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 Associates Music