Sarah Bethe Nelson
Oh, Evolution
Release Date: Feb 24, 2017
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock, Indie Pop
Record label: Burger Records
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Album Review: Oh, Evolution by Sarah Bethe Nelson
Very Good, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
The music of San Francisco's Sarah Bethe Nelson seems airlifted in from a couple of different eras: a healthy dose of '60s touchstones mesh nicely with a '90s college rock sensibility. She may not be breaking new ground, but she's taking the pieces and rearranging them beautifully. Oh, Evolution comes on the heels of her 2016 debut, Fast Moving Clouds, and is a huge slice of nostalgia that somehow manages to forge its own path.
Based on rating 7/10
The sophomore long-player from Sarah Bethe Nelson, Oh, Evolution picks up where her beguiling debut, Fast Moving Clouds, left off. It shares that album's warm, midtempo, Saturday afternoon feel, with diffused vocals and just enough guitar distortion to give the sound a dose of attitude. Nelson's vocal delivery and lyrics do that, too, the latter perhaps flavored by the Bay Area resident's job as a bartender in San Francisco's Mission District.
Based on rating 6/10
As a bartender, San Francisco's Sarah Bethe Nelson knows a thing or two about human interaction. On Oh, Evolution, Nelson tells moving stories of the world around her over a DIY sound. Aptly titled, Oh, Evolution marks the next stage of her breezy, coastal mid-fi sound, last heard on 2015's Fast-Moving Clouds.
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