Oh Wonder
Heart Hope
Reviewed by: Fareeha Naim
Oh Wonder fans, your year-long ritual of receiving a new song on the first of each month has come to an end with the release of Heart Hope. Now, look forward to listening to their debut album, featuring fifteen songs guaranteed to get you in the mood to relax. With their strategy of releasing a track each month, this London-based duo of Anthony West and Josephine Vander Gucht has been capturing fans around the globe. Each track topped the Hype Machine chart, and coupled with the album release are four already sold-out shows in Los Angeles and Brooklyn.
Opening with the sway-inducing “Livewire,” the tone is set for the rest of the album—smooth, lethargic, late night jams for when you just want to chill. The tracks are all slow to mid-tempo electronic ballads, powered by repeated drum beats and keyboard. Nothing groundbreaking, nothing incredibly innovative. But the duo brings something new to the table: their voices. Beautifully blended and emotive, West and Vander Gucht use their soft, hypnotizing vocals to evoke love and loneliness in their listeners. Male-female blends are not difficult to achieve, but when done as well as Oh Wonder, it creates multiple layers for the two voices that become one, making it powerful yet tender simultaneously.
Despite that, the album as a whole has too much similarity happening. Songs mesh into one another; having mostly the same languid tempo, relaxed vocal tones, and almost identical intros (differentiated by a few strategically placed piano chords or drum beats) turns the album into a repetitive listening experience. The slower tracks don’t have any upbeat songs to act as a refresher, thus making them drag until it feels like one long lullaby-like ballad. Maybe releasing one song a month made each track seem new and exciting, but all together, they just become the same.
A worthy listen though, definitely. For those nights you feel like doing nothing and are cuddled up with a good book and some hot chocolate, Oh Wonder’s debut should be on your playlist.
Rating: Listenable
