Womb – One Is Always Heading Somewhere (Flying Nun)
One Is Always Heading Somewhere is a record that shimmers like light on water—fluid, reflective, and utterly immersive.
Across twelve tracks, sibling trio Womb—Charlotte Forrester (vocals, guitar, cello), Haz Forrester (synths, sampler), and Georgette Brown (drums, percussion)—expand on their dream-pop minimalism to create something musically weightless, yet emotionally weighty. Recorded in bedrooms, living rooms, and makeshift studios across New Zealand, and mixed by De Stevens at Roundhead Studios, the album feels like a collage of fleeting moments strung together with whispered vocals, delicate synth textures, and a sense of movement—heading somewhere, whether in dreams, memories, or the physical world.
The title track, One Is Always Heading Somewhere, is a hushed and meditative opener that sets the tone for what follows: a journey through shifting landscapes of nostalgia, longing, and quiet revelations. Only You, one of the album’s singles, echoes the Chris Knox-inspired lyric “Love not lightly, light on water,” forming a link between intimacy and vastness. The imagery of water recurs throughout the album, evoking a sense of impermanence and change.
Songs like Slip and Angels (the latter written during the pandemic) introduce more structured melodic movements while retaining Womb’s signature ethereality. The instrumentation is sparse but purposeful, each guitar strum, synth swell and percussive texture placed with precision. The lull of Unto leads into Georgie’s Song, a moment of tenderness wrapped in soft, dreamlike production.
In the latter half of the album, after the dramatic forty two seconds of Interlude 2, the most striking moments emerge. Erosion, originally written a decade ago, carries a slow-burning intensity, its imagery of decay and time reflecting the album’s broader themes. Take, featuring Ben Woods, brings a shadowy depth with its subtle interplay between his deeper vocals and drifting synths. Sometimes plays like a whispered confession, reinforcing the band’s ability to create heightened emotional landscapes with minimal instrumentation.
The closer, O.I.A.H.S., repeats the lyrics of the opening song but with a revitalised sonic texture and lengthier outro. It loops back to the album’s overarching themes of movement and impermanence while also pointing toward where Womb might head next. The sound of creaking chairs, passing cars, and ambient textures recorded in the homes where the album took shape lends a ghostly presence, as if the spaces in which these songs were created are woven into the fabric of the record itself.
With One Is Always Heading Somewhere, Womb refine the dreamlike aesthetic of their earlier albums—Like Splitting the Head from the Body and Dreaming of the Future Again—while moving toward a more cinematic sonic landscape, whilst retaining intimacy. The album holds stillness and movement in equal minimal measure, and quiet revelations unfold slowly with each listen.
John Bradbury
One Is Always Heading Somewhere is out now on Flying Nun Records.
29 March – Double Whammy, Tāmaki Makaurau – with Hun Lynch
5 April – Meow, Te Whanganui-a-Tara – with Juniper May
11 April – Space Academy, Ōtautahi – with Mona Vasa
26 April – The Curtin, Naarm (AUS) – support act TBC
