Billy Nomates – CACTI – HeavyPop.at

by Oliver
on February 8, 2023
in Album

The anger fueled from outside fades into the background, the inner turmoil is exhausting enough: Tor Maries alias Billy Nomates demonstrated on their second work CACTI the paradigm shift – in several respects.

The Briton is still standing on her hind legs in an attacking position, but the battle zone has changed almost three years following her debut album Billy Nomates changed – and Maries even expresses a more conciliatory invitation for it.
Their post punk is still reduced and tidy, now it has it via the drum machine and bassGoing beyond concentrated minimalism, but with all facets of the noticeably grown spectrum, moving further towards synth pop and danceable indie new wave, which has a broader impact. And above all, the woman from Bristol finally relies on her strong voice and an all-round great singing almost alone on the second attempt, actually acts closer to the whole Robyn than with the Sleaford Mods, which is why dealing with yourself instead of politics creates wonderfully snappy, uncomplicated songs full of great melodies and catchy hooks.

The pumping jogging Balance is Gone is just as catchy as the sinister-wicked, flickering, wriggling and muted rattling Black Curtains in the Bag – and the brisk driving with a banging guitar Blue Bones (Deathwish) is an immediate smash single anyway, at most the brazzing, pumping, grandiose rock piece Spite can meet at eye level in terms of hit suitability.
The emotional and stylistic range and depth of CACTI is just bigger than on Billy Nomateswhen the great title track throttles the tempo from dystopian to contemplative Dark Wave, Saboteur Forcefield immediately followingwards revels dreamily in elegy or roundregarding sadness orgend sways before Fawner when apparently peaceful ballad strumming in cute beauty is actually a skittering reaction of defiance. The fact that all of this happens in a homogeneous aesthetic, which always synergistically brings together the form/content gap of the contradictions between a mood of optimism and a low level of worry, endorphins and clenched fists, is part of the fundamental attraction.

Without failures, the round dance gets out the back (regarding the strumming dance through the lounge, but missing that certain something Same Gun as well as the compromise that chanted on the debut and left out the punch Vertigo) a little weaker, because everything essential seems to have already been said and there are no actual surprises, but the longing-tinged favorite succeeds Apathy is Wild with the beguiling too The Cure and The The schielenden Closer Blackout Signal (along with its wonderfully hot screamed distance finale roaring in community mode) an absolutely forgiving ending.
That CACTI between the lines insofar as it sometimes seems more like a transitional album from a restlessly driven woman than a fully formulated arrival, actually fits wonderfully: this snapshot stands Billy Nomates subjectively so much better than the attitude of the debut – and makes you want to come.

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