It was truly a punch to the gut to read the tragic news that Nell Smith had passed away last year, aged just 17. Bella Union will be releasing her second album, Anxious posthumously, not only as a tribute, but because it’s a wonderful record of rare beauty. I reviewed Nell’s previous release, Where The Viaduct Looms, a Nick Cave covers album, recorded with The Flaming Lips. Nell was a huge fan of the band and met them at one of their shows. They kept in contact and their collaborative album materialised.
Nell’s family have set up the Nell Smith Memorial Fund to honour her legacy and support emerging musicians. Aiming to raise 100,000 dollars with an award of 10,000 dollars every year for 10 years, profits from any release will go directly into the fund’s corpus. For this record Nell worked closely with Jack and Lilt Wolter of Penelope Isles, some songs had been in the works from Nell was 12. Three songs were written in partnership with Canadian band Shred Kelly. Bringing joy to even the darkest songs, the album’s creative drive came from raw teenage emotions, and Nell’s thoughts on apprehension, love, travel, gratefulness, ambition and grief.
Opening song ‘Anxious’ floats along on a gorgeous wave of instrumentation, bursting with quirky twinkles and Disney-esque sounds. Belying the intonation of the lyrics, Nell sings an uplifting melody about wanting to make songs like David Byrne. This could easily become the national anthem of those afflicted with anxiety. As with her debut album, the influence of The Flaming Lips permeates this record and the host of psychedelic embellishments and glorious backing vocals on ‘Daisy Fields’ is simply sublime. Nell’s vocals on the yearning ‘Bubba’ soar like a lo-fidelity Taylor Swift. The song explores grief after the death of Nell’s mentor Troy Cook, who died at the age of 53.
The funky ‘The Worst Best Drug’ bops on a super synth-bass groove reminiscent of Yoshimi-era Flaming Lips. The out-there backing vocals are heavenly and transcending. The melancholic ‘Service Song’ features gentle strums on a worn-out acoustic guitar. All the quirks of playing said instrument are left high in the mix as Nell sings a beautiful melody, her voice is pure and angelic. Thinking about the loss of such a talent, listening to such a divine song, it’s hard to hold back the tears.
The freaky ‘Boy In A Bubble’ was written about another mentor and idol, Wayne Coyne, who would roll across the crowd at gigs in a giant bubble. There’s a straight path to the Lips’ quirky rhythms and guitar work as randomness ensues, and Nell holds the whole thing together with a wondrous earworm of a chorus. The psychedelic section near the end takes things onto a real batshit level, showing a wide angled appreciation for sound. Then at the end, you hear Wayne’s familiar and friendly voice, rambling in his own inimitable way.
‘Splash’ is a summery pop nugget that twitches with a smorgasbord of bizarre off kilter sounds and noises. Over a crackpot clattering percussive groove, the haunting ‘I Know Nothing’ left this listener with a lump in his throat when the pause after the line “You are gone” ghosted by. ‘Billions of People’ glides effortlessly on a chugging guitar line, the melody bright and breezy. Perfect pop. Album closer ‘Split In The Sky’ hovers over one of those marvellous thumping beats that populate the best Lips’s tunes and there’s a gorgeous melody too. The song’s bursting with hooks and kooks, by way of the spacious synths and otherworldly voices that keep springing forth
The weight of emotion knowing that Nell is no longer with us, looms over these words. Yet, I would be full of the same praise if Nell was still on this earth. This is a stunning and wondrously enchanting album; what a talent Nell Smith possessed. A beautiful soul taken from us way too soon. I want to close this review with a quote from Wayne Coyne:
“I keep thinking I’ll check my text messages from her. I’m sure she has a new drawing or new piece of a song or a new photo of her cat…and then I remember she is gone. Now when I’m listening to her singing these songs there is a brief fantastical joy. Her voice hits the ear, the ear tells the brain this is the sound of love, the brain lets the mind fly through the billions of connections it has with Nell’s life…but as it flies it also flies to her death…there is something holy that happens now.”
