Women

After collecting a Spellemann (Norwegian Grammy) nomination for best alternative pop/rock album for their second LP, 2021s Villa Amorini, eclectic quasi-instrumental rock trio Orions Belte -- guitarist Oyvind Blomstrom, bassist Chris Holm, and drummer Kim Age Furuhaug -- return two years later with Women. While holding true to a distinctively nostalgic sound rooted in influences spanning Nigerian rock, dub, lo-fi psych, midcentury Italian jazz, soul, and more, Women offers something a little dreamier and more romantic thanks, at least in large part, to the addition of strings. The idea of romance is imparted with the sepia-worn orchestral psych-pop of "I Will Always Miss You," the albums opening track. That songs reverb-drenched melancholia seems to take the ghostly, multi-tracked opening words "I will always miss you" and run them through the vents to the Victorian estates attic and cellar, out the windows and, along sweeping strings and ascending key changes, into a nearby seaside grotto. The song reaches a giddy climax around the midway point before seeming to come out of a memory and back into present-day loneliness with languid guitar riffs accompanied only by suspenseful, fluttering strings, until the groove kicks back in with the updated line "I wish I could tell you that I miss you." The album only comes down a little from that dramatic high, with its series of blissed-out, groove-based vibes. Blomstroms guitar is front and center on most tracks, even on songs with limited vocals (including "I Will Always Miss You"), but there are, as is typical of the band so far, a handful of singer-led songs among the selections. Here, those include "When Youre Gone Ill Be Gone," featuring the wispy, lovesick delivery of guest vocalist Live Miranda Solberg, and entries like the funky, mallet percussion- and flute-accented "Silhouettes" and bright R&B ditty "Jai Alai," both which, however, have longer instrumental segments than your typical radio hit. Throughout Women, carefully curated guitar pedal effects, infectious grooves, and wide-ranging whimsicality keep the spirit playful, even on rare sad songs, and as implied with titles like "Casablanca," "Night Sky," and "Balloonfest 86," Women feels like an adventure. While fans are bound to have favorites across Orions Beltes slowly but steadily growing catalog (all members are involved in other projects), the albums consistent combination of the immersive, cinematic, and oddball makes it their most irresistible to date. ~ Marcy Donelson