A self-assured cocktail of sound: Orla Gartland’s sophomore album ‘Everybody Needs a Hero’
Orla is bold, loud and more confident than ever on her latest LP.
Photo: Nicole Ngai
Having made her solo return to music earlier this year following a joyous workation in supergroup FIZZ, Orla Gartland’s second full-length record is finally gracing our ears, and it’s everything we’d hoped for when we first heard lead single Little Chaos back in May.
Marking a major leap in her artistic growth, Everybody Needs a Hero feels like a new musical era for the endlessly evolving Orla. Punctuating gorgeous organic elements with exciting electronic extracts while also bringing plenty of her characteristically razor-sharp lyrics, the album is a fiercely confident rescue remedy for darker days.
Opening with candid piano ballad Both Can Be True, Orla’s thought-provoking lyrics set the scene for a core sentiment of the album; that all the different feelings we have about a person ‘can be true’ at once. This sentiment remains in the drum-heavy second track SOUND OF LETTING GO despite its sonic divergence. Bursting with popcorn rhythms, fiery electric guitars and volatile synths, the track’s extremely wide soundscape welcomes the listener into Orla’s expanding world with open arms.
The cool digital sounds continue on anthemic track Backseat Driver, alongside a chorus so fun and rebellious it’s impossible not to sing along, before Orla slows our minds down once again with lovely, subtle single The Hit. Delivering an entirely different kind of punch with its fluttering rhythms and sweet vocal melodies, The Hit offers an emotionally charged exploration of sister-like friendships as it details the friction and frustration that stems from familial closeness through vivid and sincere lyrics: “But it’s some kinda magic / Some voodoo doll shit / Oh you get the cut / And I feel the sting”.
The similarly nonchalant Simple is then so addictively organic that it allows Orla’s warm vocals to shine through ahead of the delicious cocktail of digital and analogue sound’s return in Late To The Party. Featuring fellow sonic scientist Declan McKenna, the single is a real concoction of energising sounds, rhythms and beats – a real Shirley Tempo and a really memorable track.
It’s practically impossible to pick a favourite song off this record but if I were trying to pick, album highlight Three Words Away would be up there for sure. Its unique mix of bass saxophone and bass guitar provides a very heavy, funky sound in the staccato verses that is endearingly contrasted with the looser electric guitar and wider soundscape of the chorus in the most maximalist of ways. Goes to show just how much Orla has grown as an artist.
She is so much bolder and freer on this record. Having co-produced the album, made intentional choices throughout the mixing and mastering processes and signed off every decision, it feels as though the Dublin-born artist has found her power in the fierce creative independence of Everybody Needs A Hero.
Finishing the album with the title track, Orla brings the collection of confident songs to a humble end, acknowledging that, “It’s less about me being a hero and more about me saying OK, no joking around now — I really need you.” And it’s on this note, that we truly and fully connect with Orla and the art she has created. It’s a powerful and sensitive finale that makes you want to instantly start the album again. And so that’s where you’ll find us. We’ll meet you there.
Everybody Needs A Hero is out now via Orla Gartland’s own label New Friends.