Left Hand＜Milky Clear Vinyl＞

2020年作『THE GREATEST PART』がNYタイムズ紙を始めメディアとファンから大絶賛!USインディの新風として大注目の存在になったBECCA MANCARI。約3年のインターバルを挟んでドロップする新作『LEFT HAND』は、ジュリアン・ベイカー、ブリタニー・ハワード参加&極限までのポップセンス&名門CAPTURED TRACKSからリリースという、インディ地殻変動を起こすレベルのアルティメット状態に!

前作リリース後、家族の病気とアルコール依存で絶望の淵に立たされたBECCA。心の健康を取り戻す為、ハードワークを課した事が本作の制作開始のゴングに!共同プロデューサーに盟友フアン・ソロルツァーノ、ケイシー・マスグレイヴスやデミ・ロヴァートの作品を監修してきたダニエル・タシアンを迎え盤石の体制に。そうして完成した本作はキャリア史上最もメインストリームに接近した内容に。先行シングル"OVER AND OVER"の圧倒的美メロ、可愛らしさと力強さが同居したシンセやギターの音が彼女の成長を物語っています。3年間の鍛錬を軽やかなポップに落とし込む辺り流石としか言い様がありません!

ジュリアン・ベイカー、ブリタニー・ハワード参加というインディ・ロック視点からしても超絶な本作、boygenius新譜級にインディでありながらメインストリームへ殴り込みをかけられる頼もしさとカッコ良さを身につけたBECCA MANCARIに目が離せない!

Picking up where Becca Mancaris Captured Tracks label debut, 2020s The Greatest Part, left off, Left Hand builds on its predecessors bright, atmospheric alt-pop sound and messages of compassion. Partly inspired by challenges like overcoming alcohol dependency, battling childhood religious indoctrination, and coming out queer, its a tribute to hard-won self-acceptance. When Mancari had trouble finding a producer who could carry out their vision for the album, they took the reins themself, producing Left Hand at Skinny Elephant Recording in Nashville with help from longtime collaborator Juan Solorzano and a handful of others on select tracks. Their Bermuda Triangle bandmate Brittany Howard, also of Alabama Shakes, is featured on opening track and tone-setter "Dont Even Worry." Both glistening and pillowy, its echoing melodic guitar line, atmospheric keys, warm woodwinds, and lightly funky, skittering rhythm section provide a welcoming, widescreen backdrop for Mancaris wispy, multi-tracked vocals, which repeat, among other reassurances, "Give me all you got/I can handle it." Another guest, Julien Baker, lends backing vocals to the more playful, broad strokes of "Over and Over," a song that encourages youthful moments of free-spiritedness. While the album embraces a similarly sweeping, saturated sound design throughout, Mancari adds a bit of variety with entries like the drums-forward "Homesick Honeybee," which invites guitar distortion into the chorus, and a title track whose jazz and hip-hop inflections and spoken delivery provide an interlude of sorts midway through the track list. Nearly leaving their earlier folk-rock proclivities behind but for the occasional fingerpicked guitar, as on closer "To Love the Earth," that is ultimately embellished, Left Hand is relentlessly affirming and vibrant enough to replicate club-adjacent dreamy pop atmospheres at home. ~ Marcy Donelson