Anxious by Nell Smith

Posthumous record releases are always charged with emotion but when the release comes from a 17 year-old artist that was just getting started it is heartbreaking.

Anxious is a mesmerizing selection of songs that explore the highs, lows and uncertainty of teenage life through the eyes of Nell and is the follow-up to Where The Viaduct Looms, her debut collaboration with The Flaming Lips that explored the works of Nick Cave.

Guided by the talented Jack and Lily Wolter of Penelope Isles, who helped shape Nell’s songs, some of which had been in the works since she was twelve years old, the result is an album brimming with emotion, playful melodies and a depth that hints at what Nell’s future may have held.

Nell’s record includes three songs which were written in partnership with Canadian folk band Shred Kelly with whom she spent winter evenings writing in her hometown of Fernie, British Columbia, huddled round the fire in 2022. Jack and Lily Wolter subsequently completed these songs and the rest of the works in Brighton in 2023.

Nell’s first and only studio recording session at Bella Union’s studio in Brighton at the tender age of 15 was an intense mix of long days with Jack and Lily expertly teasing out what was really going on in Smith’s mind with the help of Doritos, Fizzy sweets, Coca Cola and inspiration gained by sneaking her into venues to see local bands play.

A lot of Nell’s creative drive was rooted in raw teenage emotions; apprehension; love; travel; gratefulness; ambition; and grief. These moods are visited throughout the tracks on the album with an instrumental approach that brings joy into even the darkest of songs.

“Anxious”, the album’s title track, opens and sets the tone with a welcome, whimsical look at teenage angst, Smith laying bare the challenges she faced via the anxiety which was amplified as a young person navigating life in a pandemic that consistently shut the doors she was used to bursting through.

“Bubba” explores a joyous approach to dealing with grief and was written as a tribute to an old friend, Troy Cook, who sadly died of cancer in December 2022. Troy had written a song about considering jumping into the River and letting it take his soul away. This concept is revisited with an upbeat melody that juxtaposes with the lyrical content resulting in a song that sounds part festival celebration and part sorrowful ballad.

Jumping forward to “Boy in a Bubble”, a psychedelic celebration and thank you note to Wayne Coyne, who opened the doors for Nell’s first work. Synth riffs, psychedelic guitar and Lips-esque production accompany whimsical lyrics describing the journey and relationship that the young singer had with The Flaming Lips on this expansive, meandering track that would fit right in with the Lips’ own catalogue.

“Split in the Sky”, the album’s heartfelt closing track, is a song inspired by Nell’s first tattoo, inked backstage at Kentish Town Forum after the final show of The Flaming Lips tour across the UK that provided Nell with her first on-stage experiences. “It is still very painful when I realize Nell is gone”, says Wayne Coyne. “I keep thinking I’ll check my text messages from her. I’m sure she has a new drawing or new piece of a song or a new photo of her cat… and then I remember she is gone. Now when I’m listening to her singing these songs there is a brief fantastical joy. Her voice hits the ear, the ear tells brain this is the sound of love, the brain lets the mind fly through the billions of connections it has with Nell’s life... but as it flies it also flies to her death... there is something holy that happens now.”