Space Island
A lingering sense of loss informs BROODS’ fourth record, as singer Georgia Nott reflects on the end of her marriage. But that doesn’t make it a downer by any means. Unfolding over simmering R&B motifs, “Heartbreak” even drives home a message of staying present with one’s grief. Meanwhile, the New Zealand sibling duo builds out an expansive vision of modern pop, with producer/multi-instrumentalist Caleb Nott introducing grounding notes of Farfisa organ amid stacked sheets of cosmic synthesizer. Returning collaborator Tove Lo’s haunting vocals feature on the rippling dance-pop ballad “I Keep,” and “Like a Woman” arrives almost completely unadorned before adding dramatic flourishes of beats. For all its introspective airs, *Space Island* is reliable for the band’s trademark widescreen turns, as on the sadness-forged anthem “Piece of My Mind.”
Bouncing back after 2019's uneven Don't Feed the Pop Monster, New Zealand sibling duo Broods strike a balance between their earlier, moodier work and the synth pop fare that they incorporated into the late 2010s.
Broods’s ‘Space Island’ is most effective when it disrupts its pervasive chill to inspect the details of crumbling love. Read our review.