REVIEW: Dear Heart by Eliza And The Nancys
Dear Heart, Eliza And The Nancys’ debut single, is a spellbinding springtime ballad that will cause its enraptured listeners to hum the melody along with the birds. Eliza And The Nancys stem from Birmingham, imbuing the city’s industrial landscape with their concoction of Megan Shields’ enchanting songwriting and Jamie Prew’s poignant, versatile guitar style.
In Dear Heart, Shields has a knack for inciting a mysterious “feeling” in the listener’s “tummy”... alike to the experience of having an innocuous, earth-shattering “crush” on somebody. Dear Heart is nostalgic of unrequited teenage obsession regarding a person who already “has the attention of a beautiful girl”. However, Shields’ self-assured, syrupy vocal delivery also suggests a mature, still-waters facet to the song’s pining lyrics.
“Dear heart, can you stop pounding when he’s near to me?” Shields pleads of her traitorous organ in the song’s opening line, before condemning it as “childish”. The song’s narrative consists of Shields berating her heart; it loves too much, falls too soon, gives her away. The listener understands that Dear Heart’s narrator is embroiled in denial: “it’s just a crush”, the refrain insists and yet references to a “broken heart” and the fact that it is “foolish” are prevalent in the introspective, truth-unearthing bridge.
The listener is swept away along with Shields’ vilified heart and they are inevitably reduced to a puddle of ambrosia as she sings the usually simplistic, unassuming noun “girl”. The vocal trill that Shields douses this noun with ensures that the listener’s own heart will probably fail; she transforms “girl” into a one-word encapsulation of Pablo Neruda’s entire catalogue of poems. Moreover, Shields’ vocal harmonies, particularly in the first verse, cleverly portray the narrator dueting with herself; dueting with her heart.
Meanwhile, the twang of Prew’s tasteful, Bossaesque rhythm evokes an atmosphere of yearning, elevating Shields’ vocal into a dewy, humid cosmos. Martin Nicholson, a drummer who frequents the recordings of BIMM artists due to his impressively protean style, provides a fluid groove alongside bassist Nikola Yanev. Yanev lends a solid, docile bass tone that supports Prew’s stylish, Tunstall-inspired wanderings through Shields’ vocals as they take flight in Dear Heart’s final chorus.
Overall, the delicately rendered instrumentation of Dear Heart cements the fact that the song feels like a “killer kiss”.
Produced with astounding skill and delivered beautifully, Dear Heart is an early-summer treat for any radio station to air. Eliza And The Nancys have truly introduced themselves with a bang, much like a dandelion exploding; Dear Heart’s listeners will be dancing dreamily with the pollen and the seeds.
© Melissa Julianne Severn 2021
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