NOBODY'S FLOWERS

Nick Fit is a man of many hats. From his stints in various notable hardcore bands of the 2000s/2010s, to his collaboration with Pat Kindlon of Self Defense Family/Drug Church in the form of their project Loss Leader, to his current role as primary songwriter of the black metal-tinged hardcore act Soothing, he’s never content to rest on his laurels. Nobody’s Flowers is one more result of that unrelenting restlessness.

From the mouth of Fit himself, the album was “recorded in 2016ish”. He thinks. Fittingly, that sort of cavalier nonchalance encapsulates the essence of Nobody’s Flowers. Lilting, interwoven guitar melodies, intricate basslines, utilitarian programmed drums, and Fit’s pleasant, airy vocals create an atmosphere that invites you to sink into it. Like The Sundays, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, or any number of early 90s Britpop groups, Nobody’s Flowers presents deceptively intricate compositions disguised as sentimental indie-pop songs. Immediately arresting and inviting, the record’s warm familiarity is bolstered by a songwriting sensibility that employs surgical precision.

Originally released unceremoniously as a digital-only affair, treating this record as a sort of afterthought is both a disservice and strangely appropriate. Like the music he crafted here, Fit is simultaneously self-assured and prone to underestimations of his own abilities. Nobody’s Flowers is an extension of that principle—Content to languish unheard on some forgotten hard drive, never aspiring to the notoriety it quietly knows it deserves. Luckily, Really Rad Records has saved it from the purgatory of obscurity and given it a proper vinyl release. Even if another note of music is never recorded under the Nobody’s Flowers moniker, this 25-minute tour de force has more than earned the right to sit alongside the records that influenced its creation.