Ultimate
Georgia Satellites
Keywords
Reviews (4)
Pitchfork
d. 11. Feb. 2021
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Sophia June
d. 11. Feb. 2021
"On Merlynn Belle, Tele Novella offer a ticket to a time-traveling ghost town tour. The Lockhart, Texas band's second album shifts easily between style, genre, and time period, moving from folky Americana to Renaissance-esque ditties, from cabaret ballads to baroque pop and psychedelic rock, from the Old West to a previous century. Ultimately, Merlynn Belle is about grief, loss, and longing, conjuring its subjects as if through a Ouija board: We hear about a witch who dines on crystals, a beautiful girl who's involved in a murder, and a shrine illuminated by candles where petitioners write their dreams on scraps of paper ... While it's easy to imagine Tele Novellea's rapid oscillation of styles leaving you carsick, Merlynn Belle is grounded by its evocative imagery and by Ribbons' unique narrative voice. The final effect is less dizzying than it is intoxicating".
AllMusic
2021
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Timothy Monger
2021
"Merlynn Belle is the band's first release for Kill Rock Stars and doubles down on their lonesome honky-tonk elements, which they pair with a peculiar blend of melodic pop shifts and a folk sense that seems centuries rather than decades old. The duo highlights this new direction with their own tongue-in-cheek description as a "medieval outsider country" band. It's as good a term as any to describe the strange minstrelsy of songs like "It Won't Be Long" and "One Little Pearl," where eccentric psych-folk and spaghetti western collide with theatrical storytelling. Gordon's clear lilting voice is well suited to this environment which she and Chronis populate with eerie autoharp trills, vintage organs, tambourines, and vibraphones, all marinated in buckets of reverb. A rich palette of analog atmospherica permeates the record".
Folk radio UK
d. 5. Feb. 2021
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Bob Fish
d. 5. Feb. 2021
"The duo (...) create music that can only be described as medieval honky-tonk. Having been somewhat daunted by the limitless choices of modern recording, Tele Novella took a completely different approach ... Parts were recorded as they were written, in whole takes, laid onto an eight-track tape recorder. Rather than assembling parts through editing, the process yielded a more organic approach ... Lost in time outside Austin in Lockhart, Texas, Tele Novella have found a haven to create their own brand of medieval twang. That Merlynn Belle at first sounds strange is a testament to their unwillingness to bend to rules enforced from the outside world. Once their spell is cast you find them impossible to resist. Burrowing under your skin the songs take hold, and you are unable to resist the twisted charms of Tele Novella".
Uncut
2021 March
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Terry Staunton
2021 March
"The duo of Natalie Ribbons and Jason Chronis paint evocative portraits of te small town Texas that spawned them, tapping into myriad hues of American folk history. Torch-y opener "Words That Stay" comports itself as a hybrid of KD Lang and Mazzy Star, all swooping voices and echo-laden open spaces ... Beguiling and atmospheric at every turn".