Nova Twins strike with their sophomore album ‘Supernova’
The emerging London rockstars unleash wrath, rigour, and power in the adrenaline rush of their new genre-bending project.
★★★★★
Photo: Press
In March of this year, I first heard of Nova Twins through their track Athena and was instantly hooked. I listened to their debut album Who Are the Girls?, released in 2020, and was ecstatic when I discovered they were releasing their next album in a few months.
Although their first album was an excellent introduction to the newfound electro-punk rock genre, Supernova is an evident enhancement of their previous work, and a must-listen this year.
The duo (consisting of Amy Love and Georgia South) set a precedent for the album in their opening track, Power (Intro), with the lyrics, “Supernova, own your power / Supernova, you are power / Welcome / To the end / And your new beginning,” along with intense drums and thrilling background vocals and instrumentation. Needless to say, the duo delivered this theme impeccably.
Within the use of chant-reminiscent tones and lyrics in tandem with addicting guitars and instruments, Nova Twins instil a sense of confidence and vigour in the listener, heard in tracks Antagonist and Cleopatra. There is truly an element present in these songs, as well as the rest of the album, that Nova Twins did not hold back in any aspect of the creative process. This catharsis of anger and frustration moulded in the shape of self-assurance takes the listener to a state of mind that is difficult to access without the assistance of music like this.
Being two young Black women in the music scene, being reduced to a stereotype or a single depiction/image is unbearably familiar. Through tracks Choose Your Fighter and Fire & Ice, the duo express their versatility and how they can conform to any genre that they so please, rather than one forced upon them. The latter track opens with, “I wanna strut, I wanna scream, I wanna fuck / I wanna fight, I wanna bite, I wanna rock / I want to cry, scratch out my eyes, I can be tough / I’m volatile, don’t want to smile or cheer the fuck up.”
The message is clear: let women and femme-presenting people be rugged, filthy, and aggressive without it taking away from their femininity or minimizing them to “the moody type”. Raging women/femme-presenting people is a rarity in mainstream media, almost to a point where it is taboo with this negative stigma that they are “too sensitive” and “take everything too seriously”. Nova Twins are giving music to people who need to be abrasive without limitation, paying no mind to outside scrutiny.
Of course, an album about feminine power feels complete with tracks in protest of the patriarchy and the men that reside within and benefit from it. Puzzles acts as a role reversal in which women are singing about wanting sex and using a man for that sole purpose, which men have done countless times in popular tunes. “Don’t want you to love me, you just need to make me moan,” and “When I call his name, he likes to give it nice and slow” are notable lyrics, saying how women, too, can want one thing from a man, without the emotional attachment that is usually tied to a woman’s sexual desires.
Not only are the typical societal roles reversed of the one being used and the user, but the positions of power in terms of domination and submission are flipped as well, having the man fall to the command of the woman who is seeking him for her own pleasure.
The duo share another form of role reversal in the track Toolbox, playing on the common sexist phrase, “You should smile more”. They take a violent and gory approach: “Got a toolbox, baby, let me work on you / I can fix a smile, cut your wires / Let me help your personality crisis,” and fill it with anticipation and badassery.
Nova Twins explore many more concepts such as killing your boyfriend as an act of revenge (K.M.B), the solemn within the cyclical events of life (A Dark Place For Somewhere Beautiful), the complication of someone copying you and your style (Enemy), and the overwhelming harsh realities of the world we reside in, feeling trapped (Sleep Paralysis).
Nova Twins already wowed me with their debut, but Supernova is more experimental and unapologetic in a way that conveys how much they have grown within the past two years. Through hostile, confrontational lyrics, head-banging instrumentals, and strut-worthy vocals, the duo have released my favourite album of the year thus far. If you’re filled with fury and need to scream lyrics you would never dare say typically, or just want to listen to a diverse, powerful, and inventive piece of art, look no further.
Supernova is out now via Marshall Records.