Mean Lady champions positivity on Nature
Delaware’s Mean Lady are back with Nature, their first full length since 2013. Katie Dill and Sam Nobles have been making colorful electro-pop together for years, taking a couple years off for Nobles to work with a handful of other DE bands and Dill to explore the improv scene in LA, but they’re sounding more blissed-out and positive than ever here. It dropped just in time for Valentine’s Day, and you can stream it now below.
The duo kick things off with chiming piano and expansive synthesizer on bright-eyed ballad “Darling.” It’s the kind of straight-up love song a lot of artists seem incapable of writing these days, and the conviction in Dill’s soaring voice really sells it. Meanwhile, second track “Butterfly” demos the enchanting low end of her rich alto, riding elevator-ready keyboards into a triumphant profession of self-love in the chorus. From the similarly-themed “Walking Flower” to the feel-good “Sing Along,” there’s posi-vibes all over this thing, and we can’t get enough of that these days.
It would be easy to draw comparisons between the band and fellow, dreamy duo Beach House, but where the latter tends to thrive in warm earth tones, Mean Lady takes a far more kaleidoscopic approach. There’s the plaintive blues “Donna Marie”, the deep purple of “The Ghost,” and the vibrant greens and yellows of final tracks “In Time” and “The Woods,” but Nature’s piece de resistance has got to be twinkling waltz “Fairy Ring.” The jazzy chords, heartbreaking vocals, and lullaby-esque atmosphere come together for something truly special. It’s the kind of song you’d want to live in, providing a beautiful, serene centerpiece to a beautiful, serene album.