Black Marble
Fast Idol
Release Date: Oct 22, 2021
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock
Record label: Sacred Bones
Music Critic Score
How the Music Critic Score works
Buy Fast Idol from Amazon
Album Review: Fast Idol by Black Marble
Great, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Though steeped in dated niceties of '80s production aesthetics, brandished by yesteryear's minimal synth and cold wave movements, Black Marble remains timeless, refreshing, and oddly exciting. Sure, Stewart's music, to virgin ears at least, doesn't stray far from adjacent acts like Drab Majesty , Choir Boy, or even those on the more ethereal end of the synth-pop spectrum like Wild Nothing . But deeper and dedicated listening proves Black Marble a cut above the rest, with far more emotional depth and nuance than individuals fail to recognize.
Based on rating 6.8/10
For Chris Stewart, the synthesizer wizard behind Black Marble, influence is more than a guidepost, it's his whole act. On his latest record, Fast Idol, he continues his decade-long project of essentially rewriting '80s synthwave classics. It's a pastiche that sounds more New Order than New Order, so close to OMD that it makes you wonder if you were perhaps living inside of Pretty in Pink.
Opinion: Very Good
Black Marble is a class act. Now four albums deep with 'Fast Idol', he continues to amalgamate his sound whilst progressing through different bodies of work - a sound that seeks to channel the future while simultaneously imprinting residue of the past. Black Marble, aka Chris Stewart, may now be based in LA, but he's imbued with the spirit of NYC's synth pop scene of the early 2000s.
'Fast Idol'
is available now