Now finding himself in bigger possibilities, Nourished By Time takes the time to create something refreshing. ‘Catching Chickens’ captures the spectacular moments of his debut album and then some, filling as many striking compositions and writing that make the EP striking as a result.
Seeing Nourished By Time where he is at the moment is delightful to see, as there is a magnetic charm to the way he embosses his own spin on vintage sounds with modern soulful sensibilities. On his debut project alone, ‘Erotic Probiotic 2’, there is an immediately fully realized quality to everything that was instilled in the project, the hypnagogic pop and freestyle embellishments where the production and the melodies are glorious enough, even helped out with the poetry where the social fractures meshed with personal frustrations and romantic swivels allows the project just to reach impeccable heights. With him signing on XL recordings just this year, it creates more potential heights for Nourished By Time to head into, eventually putting out ‘Catching Chickens EP’ to test things further.
With this EP being the first project Nourished By Time has put out under the XL label, it sure has been a boon for him in general, as most of the tracks are filled with stunning melodic sensibilities that are helped out with production and performances that goes for broke, rendering these songs with sharp and snappy emotional fervor. The blazing synth patches and soulful vocal refrains popping up across the gleaming keys and pulsing grooves on ‘Hell of A Ride’, the riveting low-end bounce with the cooing backing samples and soft synth patches on ‘Hand On Me’, the shuffling guitar licks on ‘Had Ya Called’ that then charges on its solo on the latter part of the song, the sweeping melodic swerves from the guitars and keys on ‘Romance In Me’ that allows Nourished By Time’s vocals to soar, and even despite the briefness of ‘Poison-Soaked’, it still has its moments due to its immense swampy soundscape executed well enough from the sharper percussions, hazy synths, and Nourished By Time’s bellowing vocal delivery.
The poetry follows a familiar scope of what was written down on Nourished By Time’s debut album, yet it still comes off as extremely potent. It’s an arc surrounding the romantic touches that slowly disintegrates along the way, mostly because of the societal systems that subsume it. This then adds tension that leads to the romance fizzing out, a devastating breakup where the protagonist and his ex have to make way for themselves and keep on churning through to keep themselves alive, a condition that makes the powerful ballad ‘Romance In Me’ such a crushing way to end the album as that romantic flair will only exist within the mind and never the reality.
It’s an EP that might be testing the grounds in Nourished By Time’s newfound growth and success, but it’s a test run that still sticks the landing with exceptional results. Filling as much sharper melodies and well-balanced yet layered production makes the EP strike out a glorious home run, with Nourished By Time’s musical prowess as a vocalist, writer, and producer just keeps on shining away with so much stylistic flair and exceptional musicianship. If this is a preparation for what Nourished By Time has in store soon, he will definitely make a run to catch another golden strike.
Favorite Tracks: ‘Hell of A Ride’, ‘Hand On Me’, ‘Had Ya Called’, ‘Romance In Me’
Least Favorite Track: ‘Poison-Soaked’