Brooke Bentham
Everyday Nothing
Release Date: Feb 28, 2020
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock
Record label: Allpoints
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Album Review: Everyday Nothing by Brooke Bentham
Very Good, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 7.2/10
What happens when a precocious youth becomes just another adult? As a college student in London, Brooke Bentham's early singles attracted buzz and earned her a deal with British indie label AllPoints. But when it came time to write a debut album post-graduation, she was burned out: "I was just lying in bed every day and just watching television," she told NME. "I couldn't write and I felt like a piece of shit." She worked two retail jobs to make ends meet, drawing on the non-musical experience for lyrical inspiration.
Based on rating 3.5/5
Drawn from the singer's own soul-searching experiences following her graduation from university, 'Everyday Nothing' sees South Shields-born Brooke Bentham meditate on a burdened life of "black and heavy" feelings, dead-end jobs, social isolation and romantic struggle. Channeling the world-weariness of Angel Olsen with the upbeat and pretty pop sensibilities of Alvvays, Brooke's voice wavers emotionally between total dejection - "I haven't been wasted in months," she mournfully intones on the gorgeous 'All of My Friends are Drunk' - to a confident hopefulness: "I'm here to feel something real" goes the defiant announcement of 'Perform For You'. Amid the cool and pared-back Soccer Mommy-esque reflections ('Telling Lies', 'Without'), and euphoric, building ballads ('Perform For You', 'Keep It Near'), 'Everyday Nothing', with modern mastermind Bill Ryder-Jones a notable presence on production duties, is also more than a little indebted to the heady sullenness of vintage '90s alt-rock, no less so than on fuzz-blasted rocker 'Control', awash as it is with whooshing guitars and hazy textures.
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