Someone New (album)
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| Someone New | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | October 16, 2020 | |||
| Length | 47:51 | |||
| Language | English | |||
| Label | Chivi Chivi, Luminelle Recordings | |||
| Producer | Valentin Ignat | |||
| Helena Deland chronology | ||||
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“All the female characters in movies that I tended to identify with as a young girl were desirable women, and their position was often in relation to a man... It’s not from their subjectivity; they’re being described. [Writing this album], that wasn’t something that I wanted for myself—I wanted to find the main character.”
Someone New is the first full-length studio album by Canadian art pop musician Helena Deland.
Editors at AllMusic rated this album 3.5 out of 5 stars, with critic Marcy Donelson writing that "Deland's vulnerable voice helps make her self-conscious, searching commentaries all the more engrossing" on an album with "subtly shifting sounds and structures".[2] Jess Wrigglesworth of Clash Music gave this album an 8 out of 10 for displaying Deland's "ability to combine woozy guitars with killer synths and endlessly catchy melodies".[3] In Exclaim!, Joe Bagel rated this album 9 out of 10, calling it "a confetti cannon filled with breakup roses" that is "a gestational document, thrilling to witness" for Deland's exploration of romantic relationships.[4] Editors of the publication chose it as the 39th best album of 2020, with Kaitlin Irving praising "evocative lyricism and melancholic guitar riffs [that] make the album so intoxicating, real and timeless, it may prove impossible to turn off".[5] Someone New was an album of the week at The Line of Best Fit, where reviewer Jay Singh gave it a 9.5 out of 10 and called it "a living, breathing entity" that "has a presence that lingers long after it’s finished".[6] In Loud and Quiet, Guia Cortassa rated Someone New 8 out of 10, stating that "Deland gets incredibly close to penning the perfect pop album for the current moment".[7] Writing for Pitchfork, Sophie Kemp rated this album a 7.9 out of 10, stating that "despite its frequent darkness and sullen mood, Someone New shudders with a digital glow" that "replicates the push and pull of a complicated relationship".[8] Steve Horowitz of PopMatters scored this release a 7 out of 10, noting the "ambitious and demanding" songwriting but also criticizing the lack of seriousness, continuing that a "lack of gravitas is also the album’s greatest flaw".[9]
Track listing
- "Someone New" – 3:50
- "Truth Nugget" – 4:41
- "Dog" – 3:53
- "Fruit Pit" – 3:16
- "Pale" – 3:02
- "Comfort, Edge" – 3:44
- "The Walk Home" – 2:29
- "Seven Hours" – 2:24
- "Smoking at the Gas Station" – 4:34
- "Lylz" – 3:03
- "Mid Practice" – 3:58
- "Clown Neutral" – 4:42
- "Fill the Rooms" – 4:16
Personnel
- Helena Deland – guitar, keyboards, vocals, cover art[7]
- Tom Gould – bass guitar
- Valentin Ignat – bass guitar, guitar, keyboards, percussion, piano, backing vocals, engineering, production
- Alexandre Larin – guitar
- Francis Ledoux – drums
- Jesse Mac Cormack – bass guitar
- Cédric Martel – bass guitar
- Vishal Nayak – drums
- Ouri – cello on "The Walk Home", mixing on "Pale"
- Jacob Portrait – bass guitar, drums, keyboards, engineering on "Lylz", production on "Lylz"
- Gabe Wax – bass guitar, guitar, keyboards, percussion
