Fritz: Pastel | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- In 2017, Newcastle singer-songwriter Fritz quietly released her self-titled debut album. Fritz was a record filled with reverb and noise, leaving her voice obscured, and comfortably subtle. Tilly Murphy, the force behind Fritz, is back now in 2021 with a louder and prouder sophomore sound. Her nostalgic, dream-pop still eschews genre but I can say this about it: though she always employed noise with a heavy hand, her new record is much bolder in other ways, a sign of her growing confidence.

Where her lo-fi debut album felt indebted to the bedroom pop of Alex G, Emily Yacina and Jay Som, Fritz’s sound has evolved to encompass her influence’s influences. It should be no surprise how ‘90s Pastel sounds given the nostalgia that comforts Fritz throughout. She shares some of this witty lyricism on Die Happily, recalling “Froot loops and soda covered the floor / CD players still going playing ‘80’s hits you adore.”

Pastel -in Fritz’s own words- is a collection of songs about her upbringing, adolescence, her friends, her family and her whole goddamn life. Yet it’s so universal. It’s a record for drowning out the noise with more noise, for elation and reflection. On the ironically upbeat Arrow, Fritz sings so openly of being led on, “I got depressed from all the games you put me through / It’s not like you meant them, I’m not good at this I’m sensitive.” Though her words may be so straightforward, instrumentation caught between Alvvays and The Jesus and Mary Chain simultaneously places Fritz dancing at a party and crying in the cab à la Lost in Translation.

Fritz’s lyrics can feel collaged together, like fast-forwarding through the pages of a diary, absorbing the whirling, concentrated surge of intimate, personal emotions. Where Fritz is out of love on Arrow, she’s infatuated on Die Happily, conflicted on Sweetie and somewhere in between for the most part.

As chaotic Pastel may be, it feels controlled, noisy but precise. On U Keep Me Alive, Fritz creates sickly sweet harmonies with vocal modification, bolstered by clashing fuzz that leads to one of the most satisfying codas of the record. Die Happily with all of its shoegazey guitar layers leaves room in the mix for brightness: faint keys echo the jangly euphoria of Cocteau Twins, and again, Alvvays.

Beneath the noise that clouds Pastel, Fritz sings of growing up, softly, gently and without judgment. In its unreserved reflection, Pastel feels candid and truthful, it transcends the different eras it borrows from to become an album that’s immediately timeless.

- Sean Tayler.<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2764609432/size=large/bgcol=f…; seamless><a href="https://fritzmusic.bandcamp.com/album/pastel-2">Pastel by FRITZ</a></iframe>