The Passionate Ones

After years spent grinding on the DIY circuit under aliases like Mother Marcus and Riley on Fire, the Baltimore musician (born Marcus Brown) took on the Nourished by Time moniker in 2019. He broke through with 2023’s *Erotic Probiotic 2*, his first album as Nourished by Time—a swirl of lo-fi synth-pop, post-punk, funk, and R&B that made capitalist critique sound cool. On his second full-length (released on XL Recordings, as was his 2024 *Catching Chickens* EP), Brown simplifies his sound without sacrificing its freewheeling eccentricities and lyrical nuance. Here, songs about love reveal themselves as songs about surviving and finding meaning in an alienated, oppressive modern world. “Know he’s got a purpose/But he’s always working/Tryna beat the system/Manifest a vision,” he sings on “9 2 5,” which transmutes day-job drudgery into piano-house euphoria. Here and there, shimmers of beauty and absurdity shine through the cracks, like a story of a half-baked psychic reading on “Idiot in the Park.”

Marcus Brown’s remarkable new album beefs up his airy, omnivorous R&B, searching for a sound tough enough to sustain the daily grind and big enough to keep the dream alive.

Nourished By Time speaks to something bigger on The Passionate Ones On his second album, Marcus Brown makes the case for dedicating yourself to something difficult.

What’s so beautiful about The Passionate Ones is the simmering afterglow in every song, enhancing Nourished By Time's mixture of chillwave, Arthur Russell, and SWV.

On his second album, 'The Passionate Ones', Nourished by Time yearns for lasting love and satisfaction – and puts faith in his future.

On the second Nourished by Time album, each movement is staggeringly inventive in its own right. Marcus Brown's interrogations of art, relationships, and late-stage capitalism make it his most considered, elaborate expression yet.

Nourished by Time return with an experimental R'n'B album in which desire and disillusionment share the same groove.

Nourished by Time‘s ‘The Passionate Ones’ sets up shop comfortably on the border between R&B and lo-fi indie pop.

The Passionate ones by Nourished by time album review by Kimmy Curry for Northern Transmissions. The artist's LP is now out via XL Recordings

Marcus Brown’s second album makes a plea for big feelings in earthy vocals, rolling breakbeats and a contender for song of the summer