Naomi Hates Humans

Female singer-songwriters seem to be pretty much all that gets signed these days, call it a media manufactured trend if you will (because it is) but it can’t be said that the movement hasn’t spawned some excellent music. From Florence and her machine to Bat and her lashes. There has been an abundance of quality thrust our way from the get-go (lets just forget about Duffy eh?). It’s true that for every Florence and Marina there are a thousand Pixie Lott’s and thankfully Naomi Scott of ‘Naomi Hates Humans’ falls very much into the former category.

The sound is heavily indebted to the the rockier side of Jeff Buckley’s seminal “Grace” album while the vocals are pure Patti Smith with the roughly sewn melodic-ism of Janis Joplin. That’s not to say Naomi’s a one-trick pony though, ‘Heroes Like Us’ shows a playful side to Naomi’s downcast style with flashes of brass and sharp, structural left-turns. The chorus is remarkably gentle but works well and the lyrics are particularly impressive, taking a popular subject and completely turning it on it’s head.

Unfortunately there are no real singles evident here, the closest thing Naomi has to a potential single is opener ‘Half The Man’ with it’s insistent rhythm, infectious bass and faintly dissonant twists and turns. It’s a great start and really underlines Naomi’s talents but the lack of any real hook is a real blow to the songs commercial aspirations and the following track ‘Tightly Choreographed Moments’ is positively pedestrian by comparison, the weak link in an otherwise impressive collection.

The best is most certainly saved for last here with the epic dynamism of ‘Some Things Are Worth Getting Your Heart Broken For’ acting as a dramatic full stop at the tail end of a record brimming with seething angst. Sparse verse’s are off-set by a subtly anthemic chorus and layered blasts of noise (much like Buckley’s ‘Dream Brother’) in a track which closes the record with a real sense of authority. It’s a powerful statement from a powerful artist who obviously has a lot to say and will almost certainly mature over time, a couple more immediate tracks wouldn’t go amiss though.

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“I am not the best person to speak to when it comes to defining the ominous title of anti-folk. in fact, I;m possibly the worst. It seems to me that occasionally twee and comical singer-songwriters are smeared with the genre, while more frequently those charged with championing the cause are folk artists baring a grudge against society, with a contradictory penchant for singing about nothing else. So does that make anti-folk a witty yet hypocritical British exercise against anything socially-binding?

If that’s the case, Naomi Hates Humans is everything that falls under the genre, minus the folk influence – as her name implies, she’s anti. Every track on her self-titled EP, which followed 2008’s debut album Pipe Dreams And Lullabies, suggests so: from the self-involved “Heroes Like Us”, which denounces the modern day Superman and declares the backwards minority superior, to the powerful grunge on “Half The Man”.

That kind of description could spiral the release into a negative light; reality couldn’t be farther from the truth. While her debut brimmed with a sultry, sparse production, Naomi Hates Humans is full of driving percussion and fierce, provoking vocals. Something which, given more air, may have become stifling, but given a four-track slams itself against its walled enclosure and spits at its critics with a crooked sneer.

Everything but everything a young, disillusioned mind craves.”

There is no such thing as misanthropy. Even in the age of Apathy, one needs the company of others, you might dislike people, or even despise certain individuals but most of the time you’re projecting an inner self loathing, and basically being a moody git.

Or so I’ve been told.

‘Half The Man’ opens with the hint of a snarl, and you begin to think that maybe Naomi Scott, who possesses the kind of voice that sounds like she’s been smoking twenty-a-day for the last decade truly represents the name of her band.

‘Tightly Choreographed Moments’ though atmospheric in the backroom of a gloomy bar sense doesn’t quite click. The first half of the EP underwhelms, pedestrian might be an apt word, the songs suit a velvet lounge, overly laid back, morose but empty.

‘Heroes Like Us’ however quivers with hope, a faint streak of amber light that pokes through the curtains, country barn guitars combine well with Scott’s husky tones, as she laments about everyday people that get lost in the hustle and bustle of the city. ‘Some Things Are Worth Getting Your Heart Broken For’ glides on the mist of mournful romanticism, soulful and tense, the track works because she sings it like she means it.

Naomi Scott seems like a skeletal cross between PJ Harvey and Jeff Buckley, by that I mean without the OTT theatrics, there is nothing on this EP that screams “Wow!” from the top of an imposing rooftop, no identifiable undeniable sense of character. But what you can appreciate from this short collection are the green shoots from a skilled songwriter that protrude boldly in the latter half.

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Band name of the month – and giveaway of the month coz it’s totally free. Totally drawly, sexy sassy female indie of the highest order. If Nick Cave and Tom Waits were women and in a good mood.

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…Not content with taking a load off and sitting in the corner, let alone being put on the shelf, the band Naomi Hates Humans alternately offers a more gruff voice to the life of the city. Powerful and tipsy, the vocal talents imbued in their eponymous EP are compelling and full of purpose, finding similarities to both The Decemberists and, in part, Cold War Kids. Compared to the upbeat and almost innocent introduction offered by Irving, Naomi Hates Humans delivers an almost venomous start with ‘Half The Man’, which, whilst honestly delivered, is lacklustre.

Elsewhere on the EP posed by this supposedly, according to the press release, ‘hateful’ band, it becomes apparent that the introduction was in fact the selfsame false start that haunts the dreams of every athlete. In ‘Tightly Choreographed Moments’, we are treated with a vocal performance reminiscent of the dance of a seemingly embittered puppet or marionette, jerkily flowing as the instrumentals both set the stage and provide a path for her to tread. The track implores the listener to haphazardly move through the lively steps sung by Naomi Scott, with lyrics that usher in the transient biography of the romantic situation. The following track, ‘Heroes Like Us’, seems more of an extension to this track than its successor, though the changing pace set by drummer Sagar Patel and guitarist Lewis Young provide a starkly enjoyable contrast to the unwavering momentum of Scott…

… Contrarily and to their credit, Scott and her band offer libation in the form of the quite uplifting finale ‘Some Things Are Worth Getting Your Heart Broken For’. Containing the same dips and dives of previous tracks, it finishes the EP in a truly reflective manner, almost a polar opposite to the repelling introduction.

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When I read the name of this artist, I immediately connected to her. Because, at the end of the day, I hate humans too.

There’s something charming and seducing about Naomi Scott, this anti-folk singer songwriter from London known by the name of Naomi Hates Human.

Maybe it’s in her smoky voice, angry but at the same time smoothed by some sort of sweetness, that seems to come from far away in time and space and sounds so much older than her age.
Or maybe it’s in the raw guitar riffs, catchy rhythms and passionate, politically-charged, even sarcastic at the time, lyrics. Or maybe in the perfect combination of them all.

How many lives have you lived, Naomi, to sing that way, speak that way and hate humans already?

Her new EP, following the promising Pipe Dreams and Lullabies from 2008, opens with ‘Heroes Like Us’, an hymn to the 20-something year-old generation of antiheroes it’s so common to find in the streets of London.

In ‘Some Things Are Worth Getting Your Heart Broken For’, an hopelessly broken-hearted ballad, she puts an end to a romance singing “cos I’m not sure if this is worth it anymore”.
It’s subtle yet powerful.

‘Half The Man’ is the possibly the most passionate track in the EP, it carries you away with it’s pumping bass and supercharged drums, raw power and control.

‘Tightly Choreographed Moments’ reveals all her minimalist yet rich approach to musicking, her voice bursts with emotions while she sings of a life spent “between drunkenness and sober..” to a special someone: “I could dance around you forever/until you find someone better”.

She speaks the truth in a simple way. So straightforward and unapologetic it almost hurts. And it’s not surprising, as she cites Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, Janis Joplin and Nina Simone among her source of inspirations (next to Saul Williams, Jeff Buckley and Bruce Springsteen, just to name a few). She’s got the fire of all these great artists from the past and present. Naomi, keep it true to yourself this way, and be careful not to burn yourself.

‘Cos even if you hate humans, we love you.

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