Singles can be just that: stand-alone pieces of music. But that isn’t always the case; something that gets slightly lost in this age when music is made, dropped, and consumed instantly as drip-fed sonic morsels. So whilst we have already heard some of the songs that make up Freeze, the new album from Adrielle Bow Belle, it is when they are played through in sequence, as part of a contextualized sonic suite, that they truly reveal themselves.
Taking the form of a seven-part concept work exploring themes of social justice, memory and the cyclical nature of fear and violence. It also travels through time, showing how childhood memories and experiences echo down through the year, perhaps explaining how and why history often repeats itself, how it is driven by past events, and how, collectively, we rarely learn the lessons it teaches. Even the release date of 6th July is significant, the day that Anne Frank went into hiding.
Surprisingly, for an album that deals with such big themes, it is often quiet and quietly confident, exploring its powerful and poignant ideas in a calm, collected, soulful, and often serene manner… a brilliant blend of universal rage and gentle intimacy.
The recent single, “Icey Roads,” kicks things off, a weave of soulful sounds and infectious bluesy rock groove, a gorgeous yet powerful sound carrying an even more powerful dialogue about the conditional weight of community, belonging, and identity.
“Come Home Tonight” is just as relevant today as when it was written half a decade ago; the most seductive of protest songs, blending R&B vibes and hip-hop beats, it proves that less is more, especially when the “less” is this deft and delicate. And if you are looking for Adrielle Bow Belle’s sonic range, listen to “Bunker,” a song about survival mindsets that goes from gentle alt-pop to anthemic modern opera in just three and a half minutes.
“Rockets” is again a surprisingly easy and elegant song, spacious, acoustic, folk-finessed, a global lament, a pop prayer for the people of the world facing tragedy and violence – Palestine, Sudan, Congo, Iran, Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria – and the list seems only to be getting longer.
Protest, resistance, struggle, awareness-raising takes many forms, but rarely has it been this poised yet powerful, this literate and lovely, this heartfelt and harmonious.
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