Album Review: Nourished By Time - The Passionate Ones

In embracing such absolute passions, Nourished By Time manages to cling to a special glimmer. ‘The Passionate Ones’ revolves around the desires amidst weathered systems, one that lands with bursts of effervescent quality.

In most cases, passion is a driving factor in how people live their very lives. Acknowledging the make-or-break situations that keep them constantly charging through towards grasping something that they consider to be life-affirming or even transcending our mundane, chaotic push-pull experiences. If that means doing anything just to feel anything or to reach a personal goal that makes life worth living, then so be it. Fleeting lives deserve to embody the desires that they wish to have, even if it can end up suffocating or overwhelming when things don’t go their way.

Three releases in, Marcus Brown - known under his stage name Nourished By Time - has slowly taken in a more pensive direction in terms of how he goes through the motions of his passion. If ‘Erotic Probiotic 2’ is observantly cheeky and ‘Catching Chickens EP’ is sincerely romantic, then his newest record, ‘The Passionate Ones’, leads to a more serious, direct take. One where the album title certainly alludes to what he’s reaching for. An exploration of passionate people and the momentous feelings that they carry.

In his contemplation towards his passion, there is a bigger stake that will turn it fickle. Working within harsh capitalist systems is the enemy of passion, where the act of churning through nine-to-fives is a survival routine that’s needed, but it can nevertheless turn that insurmountable feeling sterile. Nourished By Time tries not to let it faze him, as he directly writes on ‘925’: “He’s freaking the nine to five / He won’t let the dreamer die”.

However, there is this sense of fear and ache in living under such ragged systems that does affect the impassioned attitude that he exhibits. All to the point that he is yearning for the kind of love that leaves a scar in his heart, a romance that he can cling to when his life might one day crash down. But amidst his search for that connection, it never manages to fully resonate, eventually ending the narrative where he has thought through the highs and lows of being the passionate ones, and how it leaves him lost and exposed when it comes to finding love again and again.

Nourished By Time’s exploration of such nuanced desires manifests even further throughout the compositions that he has placed down. Always magnetically produced and uniquely defined in his brand of R&B, but he aims to give more atmosphere and sprawl to allow the instrumentation to fill the space, just before the somber melodic lines and hooks come through. It might take a while for these tunes to stick, but once they manage to get closer, they eventually spectacularly leap off the sun. The sharp drum grooves and hook of ‘Automatic Love’; the shimmering keys and guitar licks of ‘Idiot In The Park’; ‘Max Potential’ with its terrific revving guitars; the shuffling percussions and rumbling bass on ‘It’s Time’; those popping synths and gated drums on ‘Crazy People’; ‘BABY BABY’ that gets more spontaneous with how the grooves just spark; the lilting keys and soulful vocals that gives ‘Tossed Away’ and ‘When The War Is Over’ its tender heartache; and the buoyant tune of ‘The Passionate Ones’ that gives off one last passionate exhale before dissipating into the skies.

With every repeated listen, ‘The Passionate Ones’ just keep unfolding until it eventually showcases all of its heartfelt emotions in close vicinity, where all that yearning, that heartache, and that freeing swell beats earnestly. More directly serious in touching upon the themes of passion, delving deep into utmost desire with growth that comes from Nourished By Time as a writer, composer, and vocalist. We may live within dire times, as long as we completely embody our passionate sides, we can keep on thriving to brighter days.

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Favorite Tracks: ‘Automatic Love’, ‘Idiot In The Park’, ‘Max Potential’, ‘It’s Time’, ‘Crazy People’, ‘BABY BABY’, ‘Tossed Away’, ‘When The War Is Over’, ‘The Passionate Ones’

Least Favorite Track: ‘Jojo’ ft. Tony Bontana