Heavy Gus: Notions (2022)
Despite an album cover which depicts Dorota Szuta eating watermelon in a swimsuit in a lake, Notions is one of those albums I turn to in November, when the days get long and the nights get cold. It is a theme which recurs in the lyrics: « Stock the cupboards out for winter; we got months til new things start to grow », she sings on “Breathe”; « stock up on the timber; feed the pine nuts to the passing crows ».
The acoustic sound and excellent rhythms of Heavy Gus makes Notions an easy album to listen to, but the lyrical depth and imagery reward more considered thought. This is an album I wasn¦t expecting to keep coming back to when it released in 2022—a year that also furnished us with King Hannah¦s I¦m Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me and Horsegirl¦s Versions of Modern Performance—but which just kept growing on me, especially as the year wore on and the nights grew longer.
Favourite track: “Scattered” is a good song to sit with, I think.