Glow Stars

Heather Nova's Glow Stars is the culmination of her Spirit in You and These Walls EPs, showcasing a songwriter in progress. These songs capture a young, inquisitive Nova, but an angry female as well. She's never been one to hide from the sensual aspects of music, and such confidence allows her frustrations of love and lust to be most visible. "Ear to the Ground" and the title track shimmer with sweet acoustic guitars, while tracks like "Bare" and "Spirit in You" prance around dark melodies steeped in hollow dreamscapes. The original studio recordings for "Mother Tongue" and "Shaking the Doll" are equally vexed in self-discovery and social apathy, leaving Nova's passion to rise above the lyrical imagery of each track. Glow Stars, which was written during Nova's early twenties, is almost undaunted because of that. Her presentation on Glow Stars is convincing, yet an internal ache lies underneath.