Billie Marten – Dog Eared (Fiction) (13th Floor Album Review)
British singer Billie Marten has just released her new album Dog Eared, a jazz-folk record reminiscent of softness and a departure from her previous styles. Across the album’s tracklist, Marten traverses major themes while effortlessly mixing intense production with contemplative lyricism.
Lead single Feeling is undoubtedly one of the album’s highlights. With breezy, almost childlike instrumentals, Marten uses the opener to explore sensory recollections from when she was young – resulting in an extremely clever, whimsical piece of music. It’s also the beginning of Marten using many animal-related lyrics, in this case, ‘softer than a rabbit ear.’ It sets the tone for an album which is both powerfully moving and in a lot of ways comforting.
With Crown, Marten uses the analogy of her cat to craft a masterpiece that in her own words, touches on ‘accepting who you are, a truthful interlude.’ On first listen, the depth of the lyrics may elude, but the message is crafted so elaborately you can’t help but listen again to digest it.
Clover is playful, with many instrumentals, especially a notable synth solo that weaves throughout. Through what Marten labels as ‘contradictions’ early in the song, Clover is a heartfelt transcription of the desire to feel powerful. In the chorus, Marten sings ‘so pink I’m green / so black I’m blue / so left I’m right’ – a reference to the comparisons that are so easy to make in a world that is constantly changing. Having described Clover in regards to being a ‘multitude of anxieties,’ Marten has emphasised this in a fashion that somehow doesn’t make the heavy topic feel too serious.
No Sudden Changes is slow, anticipatory and expectant. With its piano backing and almost breathy vocals, No Sudden Changes sets the record’s emotional tone. In its lyrics of ‘I am the dust in the breeze, I am the tugging at your sleeve, I am the begging to be seen, I am begging to believe,’ Marten conveys a sense of unease without overdoing it.
Mid-album track The Glass is a standout on an album full of them. Leaning on flutes and skittering drums as main instruments, combined with a mysterious vocalisation, this track is haunting. This feeling only intensifies when approaching the song’s centre, when Marten almost whispers two counts – certainly an anticipatory choice. A particularly noteworthy moment in The Glass is the lyric ‘let me play’ – possibly a reference to this new direction Marten‘s sound is taking.
Leap Year, billed as Marten’s first non-autobiographical song, tells the story of a couple who can only reconnect every four years, wrapped in longing for the future but an innate desire to appreciate the present. It’s irrepressible and in some ways devastating, especially with the arrival of a guitar solo.
With dissonance in her voice, another haunting track arrives in the form of Goodnight Moon. In the depths of a lullaby-like atmosphere and an extended outro, Marten explores the simplicity of love. Although the song ends on a sad note (‘there is no better warning’), following track Planets is more upbeat and romantic, suggesting the stars might have aligned for Marten regarding love in an effortless narrative continuation. With ‘the stars all exploding’ and ‘let them watch / you are like heaven,’ Marten paints an image of a long-lasting relationship. Like the animals that tread lightly through Marten’s lyrics, Planets is a track that seeps into the bones of the listener and settles softly there. You And I Both continues this, with a distorted guitar solo and dreamy lyrics about ‘speaking different languages’ and ‘surviving on feathers.’ In its intimations and symbolism, it’s relaxing even with the at times juxtaposing production.
The album’s closer, Swing, takes listeners back to that childhood feeling cultivated at various points throughout the album. Referring to ‘talking to trees’ and ‘messages down telephone lines’, it’s similar in that sense to the earlier track Feeling – but this one is taken to new heights with a thumpy rhythm and the addition of fiddles.
Overall, Dog Eared is a fantastically raw album, from how every instrument feels intentional to the depth and evocative deliberation of the lyrics. It’s safe to say that leaning into the more rounded (rather than acoustic) sound on this record has done wonders, and would continue to serve Marten well on future records.
Chantal Janice
Dog Eared is out now on Fiction Records.
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