Album Review: Nourished By Time, The Passionate Ones

The Passionate Ones lands with Nourished By Time in the absolute ascent after his debut album, Erotic Probiotic 2, topped best-of-2023 lists across the globe. That record was no overnight success, with the man known to the IRS as Marcus Brown making music under the monikers Riley On Fire and Mother Marcus, before taking on his current guise.

As Nourished By Time, he has released tunes that channel new wave, electro-funk, soul and R&B. His debut swung those base ingredients 90-degrees into synth-pop that evoked Depeche Mode and The Blue Nile, diced with freestyle in hock to the club scene of his native Baltimore.

The Passionate Ones curates those disparate sonics even further, through a kaleidoscopic prism of Meat Loaf, Jay-Z’s The Blueprint, early Kanye and sampling cues taken from Madd Rapper and Notorious B.I.G.. Brown road-tested tracks from the record while touring with Dry Cleaning, which isn’t a curious pairing, when you consider the transgressive essence within Brown’s lyrics, which deal with leftist ideals, workers’ rights and more.

Across soothing synths and chopped vocals, ‘Cult Interlude’ asks perhaps the abiding question of the record – how to capture a passionate pursuit? The harried protagonist on ‘9 2 5’ illustrates the barriers to such a quest, while ‘Jojo’, serves as manifesto for that same crusade.

Terrific stuff.

8/10