Within the first few seconds of her debut single, it’s easy to hear that emie nathan’s music folds sunlight into each note, basking in warm calm synths and morning bird chirps. Her Instagram feed is no different; scrolling through the earlier parts of it, you get the impression that she finds beauty in every object no matter how banal it is — the brownstone at the corner of the block, the plain white door in an apartment, the bridge everyone passes by on their daily commute— as long as the sun is touching it.
noman is more than a well-timed aesthetic still for your photography account though. In (over)simplified terms, it reads as a familiar break-up song, trying to piece the delusions of a relationship back together: “Guess I never saw it / It’s easier talking to myself.” But the chorus — its dampened, music box-like tinkle; lush harmonies you could use as a pillow — is almost defiant in its self-assured gravity. It feels like….a bright, light-footed 2016 house song (think Kllo’s “Walls to Build” or Martin Solveig’s “Places”), slowed down to half-BPM and replacing piano with soft-spoken guitar strums. And when the drum pounds through from the next room, the result is cathartic, as if nathan were swaying in front of her window at daybreak, eyes closed, ready to let everything go.