Billie Marten – Flora Fauna
Her most exploratory and assured record yet, Flora Fauna finds Billie Marten braver, wiser and fully in bloom
The shift is clear from the first seconds of Flora Fauna. Pulsing bass ushers in Marten’s familiar tranquil vocals, met by barrelling drums. Immediately, we're introduced to a new assuredness from Marten: a shedding of her signature soothing melancholy in favour of a more defined, vibrant sound. ‘I've been growing leaf by leaf / Dying for the world to see’, she sings on the opening track, announcing this transformation. ‘Riper than you’ll ever be’.
Flora Fauna marks Marten’s third LP and her first release post-departure from Sony, to whom she signed at the age of just 15. This in itself was part of a personal overhaul, and a desire to “care less” and write about “the things that really matter.” Marten laments the things that prevent her from experiencing her surroundings as she should: with Human Replacement, the feeling of vulnerability as a woman in the city; with Pigeon, the constant presence of commerce and advertising.
Jumping between instrumentation and production styles, Flora Fauna feels a little disjointed at times, but overall this only serves to add to the feeling of rebirth. The record closes with Aquarium, a soaring strummed track that is familiarly Marten, as though to remind us that despite her experimentation, she’s not entirely letting go of her old self.
Listen to: Ruin, Human Replacement, Pigeon