Maryland DIY singer-songwriter Marcus Elliot Brown AKA Nourished By Time released the much-anticipated follow up to 2023’s Erotic Probiotic 2, The Passionate Ones, a unique singer-songwriter approach centred on a DIY aesthetic and a compositional style that blends the starry synth-pop of the 1980s and the vocal melodies of 90s New Jack Swing with icy electronic textures and dance music stylings and sung in a sensual baritone. The overarching idea is not that dissimilar to the ‘blogosphere’ projects of the early 2010s like Twin Shadow and How To Dress Well, nor should it be seperated from contemporaries like George Clanton, Dijon, Mk.gee, etc. The atmosphere and vocals often overshadow the (mediocre) melodies and arrangements of shimmering keyboards and light dance beats. Nonetheless, the songwriting boasts an earnest and emotional quality.
Opener Automatic Love sounds like a contemporary update of Earth, Wind and Fire with its funky guitar, epic keyboard atmospheres and overwrought vocals. The shimmering keyboards of Idiot In the Park demonstrate his ability to disrupt the music with electronics. The single Max Potential with reverb-soaked electric guitar, twee synthesiser recalls New Jack Swing, with a relatively catchy chorus. It’s Time boasts a funky interplay between the bass and piano. 9 2 5 is however, a trivial and bland recreation of noughties dance-pop. The other standout is the brisk, dissonant dance-punk Baby, Baby with spoken-word social criticism in the lyrics. The dreamy ballad Tossed Away follows with one of the catchiest melodies.
The album is a confident, distinctive and earnest take on lo-fi poo music. No track quite reaches the magic of Hell of a Life on the previous album. Nonetheless, the tracks are catchy and relatively varied enough to be enjoyable
Released: August 22, 2025
Label: XL
Losing My Edge Rating: 6/10
Best Tracks: Max Potential, Baby Baby