On The Passionate Ones, Marcus Brown is asking us to stop sleep walking. "We don't have to be so average," the artist known as Nourished By Time urges on the slyly dissonant "It's Time." He clarifies, like an impassioned friend giving a pep talk, "And I say that with love." The song's chorus is immediate, bolstered by a light g-funk groove; it's catchy and bright, but in the background crude reverby guitars clash and stumble. At its core, the song encourages us to embrace individuality over conformity. And that's really all Brown wants -- create jams, spread love, and live his life to his truest form.
We already knew that Brown had a skill for slightly left-of-center song structures from last year's Catching Chickens and 2023's Erotic Probiotic 2. But the Baltimore musician's knack for innovative, off-kilter genre-mashing production that feels lo-fi and simultaneously polished reaches a new level on The Passionate Ones. In fact, most of the album feels wide-eyed -- refurbishing retro sounds in a framework you'd never expect them. That's why most of Nourished By Time's work seems like it exists just outside of time, floating above like an omnipotent specter looking down on both the past and future. Maybe we've heard that sentimental pearly keyboard on "Idiot In The Park" in a classic '80s power ballad, or the moody guitar from the title track in a '90s indie rock track, or the jangly percussion on "It's Time" in an early '90s rap track: The sounds seem indebted to the past without actually dredging it up or being held back by it.
"The whole point I’m trying to make is that we’re just distracting ourselves," Brown explained in a recent interview. "We all know what our main purpose here is. We all know that we just want love and to be loved, and to give love. Outside of all this other stuff—these imaginary things we created—at the source of it is love. That’s the only real truth." That sentiment hits hard on instant highlights like the deconstructed new wave opener "Automatic Love," on which he equates life's purpose to love and "Max Potential" where love is the ultimate grounding force.
Brown isn't ignorant to the systems built to suppress us or global tragedy. He calls out the horrors of the Palestinian genocide on "BABY BABY," he samples a clip about breaking someone's cult mindset on "Cult Interlude," and repeatedly throughout acknowledges the reality of surviving under the capitalist drudge. The Passionate Ones chooses to be hopeful and romantic in spite of this world's determination to subdue our sparkle. Nourished By Time emboldens us to not only open our eyes, but open our hearts.
Stream the album below.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries
The Passionate Ones is out now via XL. Buy it here.
