Album Review: Izzy True Makes A Cathartic Debut in Nope LP
Indie punk quartet Izzy True has released a simmering, emotive debut in Nope. The album was written by lead songstress Isabel Reidy after she dropped out of high school to deal with mental health issues. Her usage of music as catharsis is evident throughout the album’s instrumentations, lyrics, and her very own voice. Nope is a record for those who want their soul’s turmoil to be released.
One of my favorite things about Nope is how surprisingly soft it is for the “indie-punk” genre and its subject matter: inner devastation. With more artists being open with their struggles for mental stability and strength, i.e. Halsey, it feels like a time of openness. Now, more than ever, people can speak on depression to make waves of solidarity and empowerment; two sentiments given by lead singer Isabel Reidy’s gentile voice. There is a natural fragility to Reidy’s voice as she uses her songs like, diary pages for her angst. She treats music like a “liberator of chains”, which allows Nope to have a perceptiveness to its listener’s reception.
Listening to Nope is like, having a friend come to you in a quiet moment and say “I know you are sad. Me, too”. It is like a spiritual instance of therapy where you and Reidy are those two friends sitting on the sofa, away from everyone, and being completely open to the roughness going on in your mind and heart. It truly is one of the only LP’s I have heard that approaches tears as common and nothing for shame. Pain can be casual but it can also be healed. Izzy True’s treatment of hurt as normal is refreshing. For many sadness, is not a spectacle or a rarity. For many, sadness can be a constant. The beauty of Nope is that it realizes that, and tries to help listeners go through their mood/ mode of pain through its natural sense unity. For Izzy True, we are all together in trying to find a sense of lightness; in the same way, we have all been through our bouts with darkness.
Izzy True has made a delicate debut that makes you want to sit down and listen. It is not an album for bouncing around the club or kitchen. It is one to meditate on either in a cafe or the couch. It is not an album that commands stillness, it is one that induces it. You will be still from the instant you hear Izzy True, and how eerily reflective, in sound, they are of your every insecutrity. You will give this powerful debut the attention it deserves, and, in a way, give it to yourself, as well. Because in-between the light-rock sonic waves of this slow, soothingly raw album, Izzy True has grasped your misery, and given it kind company.
Favorite Tracks:
Sex Ghost: a beautifully, broken track that makes you thinkyou have entered a hole in Reidy’s heart. It plays like a cozy space in darkness. Moreover, its backing vocals are haunting and adds layers to the distraught of this song’s message: no amount of physical connection (sex) can combat spiritual numbness (ghost).
Nope: a quiet ode to hopelessness. The song enters you like a gust of smoke; it leaves you breathless with its purposeful pain. It is a song born and bred in sadness, nothing more.
Jamie: some of the best songs are the ones based on a person’s journey. From Roxanne to Eleanor Rigby, a listener can devour a three minute musical tale of a woman’s woe and journey. Trust me, you will devour this track. It is my favorite of the LP, and makes you feel like you dived into the mind and machinations of a young woman’s confused, resilient soul. Moreover, the guitar strums of this song breed a sense of mischief and seething madness that make you want to know even more, “What makes Jamie tick?”.
Izzy True’ Nope LP comes out on August 5, and is brought to you by Don Giovanni Records. For More Information and To Buy The Album: Click Here.
