In recent weeks, “What Once Was” by Her’s has been circulating around Tik Tok and gaining popularity. The song was actually released as a single in 2016 and again in the album “Songs of Her’s” in 2017. The popularity of the song boosted it to the duo from Liverpool’s number one streamed song on Spotify. The song’s soothing vocals and bedroom-poppy instrumentals piqued my interest to investigate whether the rest of the album lives up to the hype gained by just one single.
All in all, this is a no-skip album. In today’s alternative-pop scene, it’s increasingly difficult to find albums that don’t have at least two songs that sound the same. “Songs of Her’s” is a fine exception. Every song has a unique vibe, each exhibiting different emotions behind the lyrics and music alike. With only nine songs, Her’s is able to create a collection that appeals to multiple emotions at once – the vocals are smooth and calming, but also fitting to blast in the car with the windows down. The instrumentals also fit that bill, with each song’s catchy rhythm casting a spell over the listener so they can’t help but bop their head to the beat.
In 2017, journalist Thomas Smith featured a song from “Songs of Her’s”, called “I’ll Try”, for a “new music of the day” piece.
“Her’s are not a group to stand still,” Smith wrote. “Each song they produce, from the lo-fi bedroom pop power of debut track to ‘Dorothy’ to the duo’s equally melodic take on slacker-rock on ‘Marcel’, sees the Liverpool-based duo shift and float between sounds. Never really fitting into one genre, but somehow nailing whatever they end up doing.”
Her’s does a fantastic job experimenting with different sounds to make a unique yet cohesive collection of songs. I give this album a 9/10, only because I found one song a little too slow for my liking and because there aren’t more songs. The group has one more album, released in 2018, titled “Invitation to Her’s.”