Critic's evaluation
His first album was released in 2008. Entitled Consolidation, the EP served as Patrick Lawrence's official announcement into the musical world. Since then, several singles have been announced until, in the dawn of 2024, new material is released. Under the title Nostalgic For Now, the product is the singer's first EP in 16 years.
The horizon is in control. The infinite landscape, seen from the car window on a straight, empty road, creates an almost exhilarating sense of freedom. With generous doses of freshness coming from an acoustic guitar with a sweet, serene riff, the song effortlessly provides an ambience that is charmingly sweet in its bucolic essence. It's not just the detachment that spills out of the introductory melody. Warmth, consolation, compassion and understanding are other extrasensory qualities that the melody communicates in its utmost simplicity until a voice with a joyfully bittersweet timbre appears to fill the soundscape. When Patrick Lawrence enters the scene, Toaster Song matures into aromatic folk material in which Rhys Zacher's drums become the element to deliver softness and fluidity in its gently serene rhythm. Curiously, the track has a storyline in which the character, motivated by a sudden association between a toaster and a dream, reflects on his motivations and life goals. Between the need to finally acquire a sense of belonging and purpose, the individual assumes his fragility in the face of fate, but is willing and prepared to live his secrets and, from them, get the answers he is looking for in relation to his search for the direction to follow.
His sense of emotion is overwhelmingly immediate. Delicately sweet, its subtlety offers a romantic nostalgia that effortlessly captures the listener with its simplicity and politeness. Carefully, the melody of the guitar timidly asks permission to enter the scene, even though it is, until now, the only sign of sound in the song. On the imagery side, it's like waking up to the aroma of freshly-brewed coffee in a sense of comfort and coziness provided by the rain falling gently outside. In the kitchen, a maternal hug awaits the lyrical character, conveying compassion, affection and affection. With a more emotional interpretation, but still with the same sweetness, Lawrence is embraced by a lovingly comforting aesthetic minimalism that gives him a justifiable, but no less curious, sense of protection and, therefore, security. Forever Home presents itself as a love letter, a declaration in which the individual exhorts all his passion for someone who provides him not only with the sensations of comfort, security and affection, but also, and above all, is capable of exhorting a broad sense of belonging. Gaining even more romanticism with the entrance of the floating violin sonar, Forever Home even ends up communicating an aesthetic familiarity with that of Jason Mraz's single I Won't Give Up, thus confirming its tender and loving essence.
With an acoustic guitar governed by a timid sensuality reminiscent of the melody created by Nuno Bettencourt at the dawn of More Than Words, a single by Extreme, the song is already presented with a soft and contagiously fluid rhythmic movement. Between overlapping vocals that amplify the sweetness of the melody, Half Life surprises the listener because, just when you thought you had understood everything the song could offer, it brings out a velvety guitar riff, with a freshness and light swing that works like strands of light breaking through the layers of clouds in a summer rain. Curiously, Half Life seems to flirt with, or even be a linear continuation of Toaster Song, after all, it continues to present an individual seeking a goal. A goal that goes hand in hand with the need for a sense of belonging and also the acquisition of full self-knowledge in order to definitively understand what their aspirations and motivations are.
It's like watching the sun rise over the mountains. Watching the dew gradually evaporate and the flowers exhale their scents as nature takes on a new lease of life. Like an adorably sunny folk song, but still retaining its delicate essence, the song exudes a fragrant, gentle and polite character, while exuding a dense desire for change from Lawrence's lyrical interpretation. Resembling the melodic structure of Haunted By Design, a single by Myles Kennedy, Empty Room's gentle rattle movement is the texture that gives it a soft cadence capable of delivering and establishing the indie folk sound vein in its rhythmic-melodic aesthetic. With slight reflective touches, Empty Room brings with it a new vision of separation. It's romanticism without morbidity, but full of respect. It's true that there is guilt and remorse anchored deep in the heart, but even so, the character is governed by a certain emotional maturity capable of giving him an altruistic notion that it's best for both parties to feel good about breaking up.
Charmingly infectious with its blend of folk and an embryonic mix of blues rock and southern rock, the song, right from the start, parades a dizzyingly contagious joy in its enigmatism. In the process, the tinkling of the tambourine gives the song notes of a delicately attractive happiness, while the opacity of the bass drum draws out the rhythmic beat. Following this concept, the guitar emerges with a gracefully attractive solar aesthetic with its bluesy velvet present at occasional moments in order to amplify the melodic harmony. With its denotatively contagious bridge, Joy The Journey is where the character acquires a sense of gratitude for the life he has lived so far, where he is happy and satisfied with what he has and what he doesn't have. The track is the moment when he stops fighting against time and understands how to get rid of envy and greed in order to finally enjoy the ride that the act of living has to offer him.
The way the guitar is pronounced, with a long sigh at the end of each sonorous phrase, gives way to bursts of memories and reflections on the past. Calm and delicate, it's accompanied by a bass that, brought in by Nick Korzi, offers a rather timid, boomy groove, but is still responsible for giving a delicate body to the track's melody. Soothing and comforting like a mother's embrace in a moment of sadness, These Are The Good Old Days is like reliving moments of purity, harmony and naive happiness from childhood, a time when responsibilities towards the adult world still seemed distant and tranquillity was the element that ruled the days. Contagiously nostalgic, but on a lower level than Toaster Song, These Are The Good Old Days features an individual dealing with coming of age and, in a way, lamenting the loss of naivety. Here, he even talks about how he feels under the weight of his obligations. Above all, however, in the song, the protagonist admits to feeling that, as he grows up, parts of his essence die to make him fit into the new moment of life, something that saddens him and instils in him a nostalgic feeling for pre-pubescent times.
To say that Nostalgic For Now is an extra-sensory product sounds weak and insufficient. After all, with its aesthetic minimalism, it wins over the listener in an undeniably irresistible way. Its sweetness, lightness, politeness, gentleness and soft harmony make it comforting in times of pain, representative in times of fear and motivating in times of joy.
Unquestionably autobiographical, it is to be congratulated for the way in which Patrick Lawrence dissected his emotions not just to feel reassured, but to, perhaps unconsciously, resemble the listener. Saying, through sound, that he is an ordinary human being and therefore also feels, loves and suffers, the Australian took the reins of courage and dealt with disappointment, rejection, fear, maturing, time and longing.
It's hard to find someone who, in a moment of despair, hasn't felt in need of a calming hug. Someone who, in moments of euphoria, didn't want to tell someone about their achievements. Of an individual who, in the midst of pain, didn't want a compassionate lap to lie on, let the tears flow and rebalance. Nostalgic For Now is about that. It's about those moments in the past when there was no worry, when naivety wasn't a reproachable element.
It's hard to find someone who, in a moment of despair, hasn't felt in need of a calming hug. Someone who, in moments of euphoria, didn't want to tell someone about their achievements. Of an individual who, in the midst of pain, didn't want a compassionate lap to lie on, let the tears flow and rebalance. Nostalgic For Now is about that. It's about those moments in the past when there was no worry, when naivety wasn't a reproachable element.
To bring all these mixed emotions to life through sound and melody, Lawrence teamed up with Zacher as mixing engineer. Because he was even part of the melodic creation, the drummer was able to deliver more depth and sensitivity as a mixer. It's no wonder that, with an enchantingly clean sound, the listener was delighted with the delicate folk tracks that, indirectly, also moved between southern rock and blues rock. The only point to note is that, despite the apparent good equalization, the bass sound was overwhelmingly overshadowed by the drums, acoustic guitar and guitar.
Rounding off the technical scope is the cover art. Signed by Ferlina Gurnawan, it is bathed in different warm tones that, at first glance, are reminiscent of Christmas. On closer inspection, however, it gives a setting that transcends technological limits and becomes sensorially palpable. With a room bathed in a pastel glow, the presence of a dog asleep on the sofa and the height of the night illustrated by the window give off an undeniable sense of comfort and coziness, qualities that are not lacking in the EP.
Released on 01/17/2024 in an independent way, Nostalgic For Now is an EP of delicate, polite, serene and soft melodies. An EP that, with the utmost generosity, offers compassion, comfort and representation in relation to life events that every sensitive individual has experienced or will experience: the fear of growing up, the pain of breaking up, the sadness of rejection. Nostalgic For Now is Patrick Lawrence's way of expressing his nostalgia for the past, but also of saying that he is ready to live whatever fate has in store for him.
