Dolores Forever - It’s Nothing

That Hannah Wilson and Julia Fabrin are both established songwriters for hire is seemingly both a blessing and a curse. The pair’s debut album as Dolores Forever, ‘It’s Nothing’ is packed with well-paced, just-the-right-side-of-formulaic pop tracks from the off. Opener ‘Not Now Kids’ shimmies in on its best Janelle Monáe impression, its earwormy chorus presented like the dividing line between ‘00s electroclash and, well, ‘00s indie. But even impeccable pop songs require similarly perfect pop delivery. ‘Concrete’ goes some distance in evoking The Weeknd’s late-night drive pop, but its obvious lyrics aren’t believable. ‘Split Lip’ nods to Harry Styles in its melancholy, but fails to pack a punch in its production. Meanwhile, for the pair’s honourable thematic intentions – namely, storytelling by women beyond their twenties – ‘Go Fast Go Slow’ is ham-fisted (take “But how the world looks different through the gaze of a guy / I could have been an engineer, a fighter pilot or something,” for one), while doing less with subject matter than the likes of Tove Lo and Charli XCX recently have; ‘Thank You For Breathing’, meanwhile, is so rudimentary one would have to go back decades for it to feel transgressive in tone. Still, these are songs capable of creating glittery pop moments: perhaps ironically and least timely, without the chintzy jazzy keys presented here, one could picture ‘Stop Making It Worse’ fitting a 2010s Katy Perry perfectly.