I’m writing this shortly before my sister’s wedding. I’ve been at my job the longest I’ve worked anywhere and I’m about to move in with my love. It has me wondering: what does it mean to settle down? What is contentment, exactly? What am I going to gain — and will I lose anything? I’m so used to the tumultuous of my 20s that it feels a bit unnerving to…not have that.
Josh Nolan’s Kind Heart to Follow stage dives into that gap. Kind Heart is the electric follow-up to Nolan’s fine 2014 album, the meditative Fair City Lights. Sounds like Nolan’s found answers to some of the questions posed in that album. Kind Heart gives Nolan’s generous, warm-hearted compositions the benefit of a full band, suggesting that the best way to get through the tough stuff is with other people.
You likely heard the album’s title track, “Kind Heart to Follow,” on here a few weeks ago. That should give you a sense of the album’s energy. Nolan and his band imbue each track with an urgency I haven’t heard since Two Cow Garage and the Gaslight Anthem. It’s a refreshing reminder that gaining wisdom doesn’t mean losing your edge. Not in the slightest — in fact, no matter what bumps and bruises you get along the way, you need to open your heart all that much more to the things that heal you.
Kind Heart to Follow is out this Friday, May 17th and it’s one of my contenders for top 10 albums of 2019.
Josh Nolan — Official, Facebook, Purchase/Preorder