A tongue in cheek nod to their previous release, ‘Fine’, Ross Hollow’s follow up album takes a contrasting side to its predecessor. The aptly titled, ‘Not Fine’, examines precisely what it claims to set out to. It’s a fairly introspective record, delving deep into topics that leave us feeling often distraught and increasingly worried about where we are today and the future as well. Growing old, being overworked, isolation, being overwhelmed, and problematic relationships all find space to be discussed on this finely composed folk rock piece. More than anything, the band offers its listeners solace in this seemingly universal feeling of discontent.
“We like to write songs and make music in community, and that helps us through times of not being fine.”
There’s a whole range of song types on this record, ranging from more boisterous and loud rock pop anthems to softer and more subtle traditional acoustic folk pieces. ‘Chill Bro’ for instance incorporates a bit of jazz while driving forward as an exciting piece of pop rock that’s got an addictive personality injected throughout. On ‘Old Creaky House’, Ross Hollow goes into a far more minimalist and emotive piece of acoustic folk. It’s within these acoustic dominant songs that Ross Hollow is at their best. A song like Isolation, so seemingly mundane with a line like ‘I can’t find the remote’ is such an apt way of describing the perennial boredom and depressive nature of being trapped alone at home. I’m in love with its direct simplicity, also for its chord work that draws influence from ‘For Emma’.
The album’s closer, also the only tune that was written years ago, is the most full blooded piece of folk on the entire album. ‘In The Quiet’ has a wonderful progression, building more and more with a banjo that has you almost inadvertently thinking of Mumford & Sons. But as the song crescendos in its final half with string work to add to that cinematic layering, it becomes a scintillatingly powerful closer.
‘Not Fine’ is an album to pull you out from feelings of desolation or just have you feeling a community spirit in times of isolation. A truly memorable piece of folk both musically and lyrically.