Billie Marten - Drop Cherries

With its title taken from a metaphor for offering someone love, Billie Marten’s fourth offering ‘Drop Cherries’ finds the songwriter painting a series of vignettes about the different phases of a relationship. The intriguing ‘Just Us’ celebrates the mundane moments and ‘This Is How We Move’ explores the “relationship dance” of two people finding their flow together, while the delicate ‘Devil Swim Meadows’ finds Billie urging “I wish you’d open your mouth and let the devil swim out”. The title track, meanwhile, nods to the simple moments in a love story as she sings “I drop cherries at your door when you ask for more”. “Imagine stamping blood-red cherries onto a clean, cream carpet and tell me that’s not how love feels,” she previously explained. It’s a shame that this “stamp” could not have been channelled sonically onto her fourth LP. ‘Drop Cherries’ may be a soothing depiction of a relationship’s simple moments, but this simplicity does leave the listener wanting more, and its poignancy often lacks any punch.