Someone New (album)

Someone New
An oil painting of a woman's face
Studio album by
Helena Deland
ReleasedOctober 16, 2020 (2020-10-16)
Length47:51
LanguageEnglish
LabelChivi Chivi and Luminelle
ProducerValentin Ignat
Helena Deland chronology
From the Series of Songs "Altogether Unaccompanied"
(2018) 		Someone New
(2020) 		Goodnight Summerland
(2023)

“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.”

—Deland on themes in Someone New[1]

Someone New is the first full-length studio album by Canadian art pop musician Helena Deland.

Reception

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 "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 Media, 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

  1. "Someone New" – 3:50
  2. "Truth Nugget" – 4:41
  3. "Dog" – 3:53
  4. "Fruit Pit" – 3:16
  5. "Pale" – 3:02
  6. "Comfort, Edge" – 3:44
  7. "The Walk Home" – 2:29
  8. "Seven Hours" – 2:24
  9. "Smoking at the Gas Station" – 4:34
  10. "Lylz" – 3:03
  11. "Mid Practice" – 3:58
  12. "Clown Neutral" – 4:42
  13. "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

See also

References

  1. ^ D'Souza, Shaad (October 16, 2020). "Helena Deland turns her insecurities into weird, unnerving indie rock". Gen F. The Fader. ISSN 1533-5194. Retrieved October 13, 2023.
  2. ^ Donelson, Marcy (n.d.). "Helena Deland – Someone New". AllMusic. RhythmOne. Archived from the original on October 18, 2023. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
  3. ^ Wrigglesworth, Jess (October 19, 2020). "Helena Deland – Someone New". Reviews. Clash Music. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
  4. ^ Bagel, Joe (October 14, 2020). "Helena Deland's 'Someone New' Is a Confetti Cannon Filled with Breakup Roses". Reviews. Exclaim!. ISSN 1207-6600. Archived from the original on October 11, 2023. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
  5. ^ Irving, Kaitlin (December 2, 2020). "Exclaim!'s 50 Best Albums of 2020". Features. Exclaim!. ISSN 1207-6600. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
  6. ^ Singh, Jay (October 12, 2020). "Helena Deland constructs an effigy of herself ready to burn on the haunting Someone New". Albums. The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
  7. ^ a b Cortassa, Guia (October 12, 2020). "Helena Deland – Someone New". Reviews. Loud and Quiet. No. 143. ISSN 2049-9892. Archived from the original on December 10, 2023. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
  8. ^ Kemp, Sophie (October 21, 2020). "Helena Deland: Someone New Album Review". Albums. Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on October 16, 2023. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
  9. ^ Horowitz, Steve (October 21, 2020). "Helena Deland Suggests Imagination Is More Rewarding Than Reality on 'Something New'". Reviews. PopMatters. Retrieved October 13, 2023.