After collecting a Spellemann (Norwegian Grammy) nomination for best alternative pop/rock album for their second LP, 2021's
Villa Amorini, eclectic quasi-instrumental rock trio
Orions Belte -- guitarist
Oyvind Blomstrom, bassist
Chris Holm, and drummer
Kim Age Furuhaug -- return two years later with
Women. While holding true to a distinctively nostalgic sound rooted in influences spanning Nigerian rock, dub, lo-fi psych, midcentury Italian jazz, soul, and more,
Women offers something a little dreamier and more romantic thanks, at least in large part, to the addition of strings. The idea of romance is imparted with the sepia-worn orchestral psych-pop of "I Will Always Miss You," the album's opening track. That song's reverb-drenched melancholia seems to take the ghostly, multi-tracked opening words "I will always miss you" and run them through the vents to the Victorian estate's attic and cellar, out the windows and, along sweeping strings and ascending key changes, into a nearby seaside grotto. The song reaches a giddy climax around the midway point before seeming to come out of a memory and back into present-day loneliness with languid guitar riffs accompanied only by suspenseful, fluttering strings, until the groove kicks back in with the updated line "I wish I could tell you that I miss you." The album only comes down a little from that dramatic high, with its series of blissed-out, groove-based vibes.
Blomstrom's guitar is front and center on most tracks, even on songs with limited vocals (including "I Will Always Miss You"), but there are, as is typical of the band so far, a handful of singer-led songs among the selections. Here, those include "When You're Gone I'll Be Gone," featuring the wispy, lovesick delivery of guest vocalist
Live Miranda Solberg, and entries like the funky, mallet percussion- and flute-accented "Silhouettes" and bright R&B ditty "Jai Alai," both which, however, have longer instrumental segments than your typical radio hit. Throughout
Women, carefully curated guitar pedal effects, infectious grooves, and wide-ranging whimsicality keep the spirit playful, even on rare sad songs, and as implied with titles like "Casablanca," "Night Sky," and "Balloonfest '86,"
Women feels like an adventure. While fans are bound to have favorites across
Orions Belte's slowly but steadily growing catalog (all members are involved in other projects), the album's consistent combination of the immersive, cinematic, and oddball makes it their most irresistible to date. ~ Marcy Donelson
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