Eliza Noxon
Good Monsters With Bad Habits
Indie-folk singer-songwriter Eliza Noxon unveils her debut long-player, Good Monsters With Bad Habits, an album exploring motifs of self and survival. The album was produced by Pierre de Reeder.
Initially, the album was meant to examine coming-of-age themes: moving on from high school, leaving home, becoming an adult, and confronting a future full of mystery. But in 2019, after the death of her brother, the album became a way to keep from sinking, to remain afloat.
Noxon explains, “Writing these songs saved my life. They allowed me to express the depths of my grief without fear of judgment or worry.”
When she was twelve, Noxon released her debut single, “Hummingbird,” which was featured on Netflix’s Orange is the New Black. The song amassed more than eight million streams. Save Your Breath, her debut EP, was released in 2017.
Encompassing a baker’s dozen of tracks, high points on Good Monsters With Bad Habits include the opening track, “Birthday Song,” a low-slung, drifting song dripping with melancholic hues. When the rhythm and electric instruments enter, the melody takes on depth and wonderful resonance, echoing with atmospheric energy.
A personal favorite because of its coasting motion, and perhaps the best song on the album, “You” slowly elevates to a sweeping melody with a gorgeous indie-rock edge. Noxon’s vocals start soft and low and then build to soaring tones that reveal wickedly intense emotions.
Talking about the song, Noxon says, “I wrote this song in a dark, chilly dorm room in May of 2021, a little over a year after the death of my brother. Thinking back to that time, it didn’t seem like a year had passed. The grief was still all-consuming. I felt isolated from the people around me, stuck in a loop of missing him, seeing him in everything, wishing I could turn back time.”
She goes on, “The song is a darker, more angry version of my grief than I had expressed before, simple in its construction and lyrics, but raw in a way that I found difficult to access at the time. In writing this song, I found a way to scream and kick and channel all the rage and fear and loss that I felt into something I could use to connect with people.”
Another favorite because of its gentle, tender flow and wistful flavors, the title track glides on a supple, dreamy melody topped by Noxon’s velvety voice, which exhibits mere hints of a luscious breathiness that touches the threshold of the heart.
“What the Waiting Was For” ramps things up to indie-rock levels reminiscent of Liz Phair. The melody shifts tempos and reveals finessed, excellent drumming.
Eliza Noxon delivers a full-length debut album of atmospheric, avant-indie-folk. Great songwriting, and oh, that voice, make Good Monsters With Bad Habits most satisfying.
