Natalie Prass

The Future and the Past

Richmond, VA artist Natalie Prass had nearly finished a new album when Trump was elected. Incensed and emboldened, the soft-spoken singer and songwriter scrapped a number of those tracks in favour of a clutch of new compositions that expressed her outrage, and The Future and the Past reveals a far more self-assured artist than the delicate torch-balladeer we met on her 2015 self-titled debut. Here, she’s quite literally found her groove, nicking pieces of ’70s and ’80s pop and R&B to give the tracks, performed once again by producer Matthew E. White and his Spacebomb Studio’s crack house band, a bit more swing. The devastating “Lost,” which Prass produced on her own, comes closest to her debut, and is certainly an album highlight. But it’s the lastminute additions that truly stand out. In crafting songs in Trump’s wake, Prass took a page from Stevie Wonder, turning hardship into joy and her sense of powerlessness into empowerment. There are no “fuck Trump” tunes here; the mantra of “Hot for the Mountain” — “we’ll take you on” — is about as aggressive as the album gets; songs like “Sisters” and “Oh My” express unity rather than anger. The goal is to bring listeners together, not push them apart. (ATO)