Warm Chris
On “Tick Tock,” the second track on *Warm Chris*, Aldous Harding asks, “Now that you see me, what you gonna do? Wanted to see me.” The New Zealand singer-songwriter’s lyrics have always been veiled and poetically cryptic—and she’s made a point of not explaining the meaning behind any of it. But her fourth album feels assured and open in a way that makes you wonder whether the question is directed at an audience that\'s been wanting to learn more about this singular artist. There’s a lot to see here, and like a well-directed film, it benefits from multiple replays, with more nuances and hidden meanings uncovered on each listen. Across her four albums, you’ll notice a linear emotional evolution. Speaking to Apple Music in 2019 about her then-new album *Designer*, she said, “I felt freed up… I could feel a loosening of tension, a different way of expressing my thought processes.” The journey clearly continued. *Warm Chris* is as intimate and curious as ever, but it’s more grounded, more confident. If the tension was loosening on *Designer*, here, Harding has grown accustomed to the relaxed space and made herself at home. The album seems to deal primarily with connections and relationships. She reflects on a lost love during opener “Ennui” (“You’ve become my joy, you understand… Come back, come back and leave it in the right place”), hunts for faded excitement on “Fever” (“I still stare at you in the dark/Looking for that thrill in the nothing/You know my favorite place is the start”), comically complains on “Passion Babe” (“Well, you know I’m married, and I was bored out of my mind/Of all the ways to eat a cake, this one surely takes the knife… Passion must play, or passion won’t stay”), and accepts an ending on “Lawn” (“Then if you\'re not for me, guess I am not for you/I will enjoy the blue, I’m only confused with you”). On the whole, *Warm Chris* feels light and folksy, and the music is relatively simple—though not without its surprises. There are brass embellishments here, a psychedelic guitar solo there, even a brief foray into forlorn vintage blues on “Bubbles.” It leaves space for Harding’s voice to remain in the spotlight. Her vocal acrobatics are as strange and versatile as ever—she can shift from breathy, dramatically deep bass to ultra-fine, ultra-high falsetto in moments, sometimes for only a word at a time. She sounds innocent and paper-thin on the gentle “Lawn,” lively—and inflected with an unusual accent—on “Passion Babe.” Her delivery is so pronounced and hyperbolic on the heart-wrenching “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain” that it sounds like something out of a musical. And album closer “Leathery Whip” feels inspired by The Velvet Underground, complete with a deep Nico drawl (occasionally flipping to a Kate Bush-style nasal tone), backing harmonies, a jangling tambourine, and a cheeky refrain: “Here comes life with his leathery whip.”
An artist of rare calibre, Aldous Harding does more than sing; she conjures a singular intensity. The artist has announced details of Warm Chris new studio album, the follow-up to 2019’s acclaimed Designer. For Warm Chris, the Aotearoa New Zealand musician reunited with producer John Parish, continuing a professional partnership that began in 2017 and has forged pivotal bodies of work (2017’s Party and the aforementioned Designer). All ten tracks were recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales, the album includes contributions from H. Hawkline, Seb Rochford, Gavin Fitzjohn, John and Hopey Parish and Jason Williamson (Sleaford Mods).
The New Zealand songwriter returns with a sparse and oblique album whose gentle psychedelic folk and beguiling free association proudly resist interpretation.
The irresistible Warm Chris is proof Aldous Harding is at the top of her game
The New Zealand singer-songwriter's rich fourth album takes time to sink in, but patience is rewarded several times over
On her new album, the New Zealand folk auteur uses an expanded sonic palette to consider intimacy and performance.
As much a great musician as she is an illusionist who dazzles the listener with stylish tricks.
Placebo return with their first album in nine years, while Aldous Harding plays a host of eccentric characters on her fourth record
So begins Aldous Harding's fourth long-player, the reliably likable and often inscrutable Warm Chris.
Aldous Harding’s songs can be as mundanely lifelike from afar as they are strangely alien up close, and on her new album she proves impossible to pin down.
New Zealand's Aldous Harding is a master of negative space. Her prowess is quiet: she weaves intimate walls in hushed proclamations, pauses,...
“Of all the ways to eat a cake, this one surely takes the knife,” is the second line of the wonderfully loopy song “Passion Babe,” off of Aldous Harding’s adventurous fourth album, Warm Chris. A line that is as inscrutable as it is incisive, and one you can take literally or figuratively.
Off-kilter lyricism and a winning sense of playfulness pervade the singer-songwriter’s hugely satisfying fourth album
Aldous Harding's fourth album Warm Chris is lean and focused, and best when at its most unadorned
Aldous Harding’s ‘Warm Chris’ invites close attention and rewards it with understated surprises. Read our review.
Warm Chris by Aldous Harding Album Review by Stephan Boissonneault. The New Zealand artists full-length is now out via 4AD and DSPs