Album Review: renforshort- 'Dear Amelia'
It’s hard, at first, to try and understand an artist who, on their debut album, snags collaborations from such diverse music all-stars as Travis Barker and Jake Bugg. An artist who, at 20 years old writes an unashamedly poppy ode to Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas and who, two tracks later silences you with the eponymous, stop-you-in-your-tracks ballad, ‘Amelia’. The track, which sends you drifting away on the melody and Isengard’s melancholy tones is a fitting end to an album which arrests your expectations and softens your heart.
Once you realise that Isengard is laying it all out for you, her heart sharpie-d onto her sleeve you stop trying to understand and just start to listen, and more importantly enjoy it.
A tour with YungBlud and the opportunity to collab with such seasoned artists have no doubt affected renforshort’s sense of self as a young, emerging artist and there is a confidence and assuredness that permeates what would otherwise be a frenetic first record. The lack of cohesion starts to make sense when you realise she wrote enough tracks to fill two albums and then had to decide which goes in what and where. Themes which hop around love and discovery, growing-up and break-ups are not uncommon for a younger artist but there is a sense that Lauren is fully enjoying what she’s doing, and she is doing it with a bare-it-all fearlessness. There is a knowing naivety to her work which isn’t at all cynical, but comes with it the acceptance that for now, things are a little messy, in matters of love and music. But who doesn’t like things a little messy?
The sense of absolute sincerity, the openness to vulnerability is what separates renforshort from just another young pop-star into something special. The opening track, the post-break-up song ‘I miss myself’ with its simple acoustic melody belies the listener into thinking this is ‘just another pop song’ and as the track slowly blossoms, lyrics such as ‘all the tears I cried for you made me forget a part of who I used to be’ encapsulate the terrifying excitedness, the raw-heartedness of a person re-discovering themselves after the end of a relationship.
‘Made For You’ a classic pop song with the itchiness of a prospective viral hit describes the lose- yourself feeling of first love which juxtapose with the once-bitten twice shy lyrics like ‘that’s one fucked up way of showing affection’. ‘Hate the way you love me’ similarly tackles the conflicting, everything all at once feeling of love and heartbreak over a quick, catchy beat you can expect to hear at every beach party this summer.
Isenberg is on solid ground when it comes to the poppier tracks and ‘Julian, King of Manhattan’ is the perfect example of that. An explosive ode to the lead singer of The Strokes, the song is an enjoyable hit she manages to make all about him and at the same time a serenade on the concept of a crush itself and a meditation on growing up and discovering the world. This song is for everyone that loves love in all its forms.
Dear Amelia is a solid, if not completely cohesive first album with lots to enjoy throughout. There is an excited on-the-edge GenZ sincerity to her lyrics which elevate the album into something more than just a collection of ephemeral pop-hits. You get the sense that renforshort is standing on the edge of something big with this album. She writes in the nostalgic grunge-pop track, ‘Better Off’ ‘do you ever wonder, if this planet is ours?’ In my opinion, the world is her oyster.
Words by Kathryn Blake
