Poets Tooth

2021年の世界デビュー作『MERLYNN BELLE』でマーゴ・ガーヤン×マグネティック・フィールズという、ありそうで無かったコロンブスの卵級アイデアで、称賛を勝ち取ったUSインディ男女2人組テレ・ノヴェラ。2年間の制作を経て待望の2ND『POET'S TOOTH』をドロップ!前作からさらにドリーミー度数が爆上がりした本作。
アメリカーナ・フォークを目指した"HARD-HEARTED WAY"で魅せる、VUでのニコの如く麗しいヴォーカルワークと白昼夢へ誘うような12弦ギターの旋律で、彼らの音楽的基礎となっている事が丸分かりに!
また"BROOMHORSE"でのマーゴ・ガーヤン×マグネティック・フィールズ路線を極めたような脱力と泣きフレーズの嵐は、リスナーをスーッと爽やかな気分にさせる事でしょう。前作に続き名門KILL ROCK STARSからリリースされる運びとなったジャケットとMVも秀逸な本作。同レーベルの看板アーティストになってきたテレ・ノヴェラは、もしかしたらUSインディ自体のスーパースターになるか!?

Tele Novellas third album, Poets Tooth, picks up where their Kill Rock Stars debut, Merlynn Belle, left off, with the duo of Natalie Ribbons and Jason Chronis fashioning dusty, serenely haunted country-psych tunes with help from producer/instrumentalist Danny Reisch. Its cinematic nature is established early on, with the howling wind and patiently oscillating nylon-string guitar arpeggios of its opening seconds. An old-world ballad, "Young & Free" is soon fleshed out with other instruments, although they fall under the umbrella of the timeless and mystical sounds -- instruments like autoharp, vintage organ, and 12-string guitar as well as various keyboards, samples, and field recordings grace the album. Tele Novella turn up the volume and engage Reisch on drums and Chronis on echoing electric guitar and a prancing bass by the second track, the bluesier "Hard-Hearted Way." While the whole album falls into the broad category of psychedelic indie pop, they lean into classic country tropes, as on tracks with titles like "Rodeo Clown," a brokenhearted ballad with eventual harpsichord timbres, and "Vampire Cowgirl," a song that features clip-clopping percussion, slide guitar, and Ribbons yodel-type inflections alongside scratchy needle-on-vinyl effects. Elsewhere, the lusher title track, a poetic character study, accompanies a recitation-like delivery with field recordings of crowd noise, orchestra chimes, atmospheric faux flutes, and other celestial keyboard tones in addition to an insistent overdriven bassline. Philosophical, whimsical, and occasionally twisted throughout, the album closes with "Funeral," which bemoans, "Shot in the dark/Missed it by a mile/Still left a mark/Couldnt blame us for trying." Hardcore aficionados of the broader style may like to know about the cover of "The Unicorn" (1974) by Peter Grudzien that appears seamlessly around the midpoint of the fanciful track list. ~ Marcy Donelson