Nothing Lasts Forever (And It’s Fine) by Flora Cash – Album Review
by Matt Callard
Duo Flora Cash are going for some Scandinavian-hybrid of The Handsome Family’s neo-Gothic lyricism, First Aid Kit’s sweet acoustic harmonies and Poliça’s layered, new-synth soundscapes – but there’s nothing here that matches those bands’ most memorable moments. In fact, there’s little here that’s memorable at all.
It doesn’t help when the opener is the best track. ‘California’ adds languid beats to a see-sawing Kate Bush melody, builds towards a sweet coda and a multi-coloured finale – and even manages a hook in the chorus. There’s promise here, alright – but it’s all downhill afterwards.
The dolorous ‘You’re Somebody Else’ circles around like a malnourished vulture, desperately looking for scraps of melody or a decent hook but it’s flown before you can recall a single thing about it. ‘We Will Never Be This Young’ is a fragment of a song, half-written and without feature. A proportion of it sounds like they’re figuring out the modes on a new synth. Perhaps they are – but it shouldn’t have been added to the realm of recorded material.
“Nothing twists the knife”
By the time the title track comes around, you’re beginning to think said title is a conceptual joke. Where’s the change of pace, or style, or delivery – anything. But it doesn’t come. Flora Cash stick to their relaxed, airy template across all ten tracks. Which, if I’m being kind reveals a singular commitment to a musical vision or, if I’m being unkind (which I am), a bloody-minded defiance towards the pleasure of the listener.
Look, I can hear the yearning, the searching, the quest for beauty; the hard-won relationship tangles drawn-out and examined in the downbeat lyrics, the multi-layers of synth washes and beats and acoustic picking attempting to combine into something seamless and timeless. But I don’t feel it. Not anywhere. Maybe it’s me that needs the help.
Nothing sticks. Nothing twists the knife. And nothing survives my two hours in the company of the new Flora Cash album. That’s what hurts the most.
3/10