Music Review: Billy Nomates – ‘Metal Horse’

Metal Horse

Metal Horse is the third album from Leicester, UK native Billy Nomates (the stage name of Victoria “Tor” Marie). The horse of the title refers to the statues one rides on a carousel at a carnival fairgrounds. 

These fairgrounds are ubiquitous in the seaside resort towns of Great Britain. Sometimes tacky, always seeming to be from another, somewhat more innocent time, they can evoke sentimentality and a hope of uncomplicated fun. However, while Nomates draws upon the imagery of a fun-fair for many of the songs on Metal Horse, it’s not escapist entertainment.

Thematically the songs deal with everything from the state of the world (“Plans”) and the music industry (“Override” – “Why do all the vultures send flowers to me?”) and death (“Strange Gift”). While they are all familiar and oft-used topics for songs, on Metal Horse Nomates’ lyrics avoid the easy routes of cliché and sentimentality. 

She has a marvelous and ironic take on life – almost sardonic – shaped by having worked crap jobs to survive before finally breaking through in music. She has no illusions about who she is and what the world is like and it shows clearly in her songs. 

Although Nomates is from the midlands – Leicester is smack dab in the middle of England – in my mind she is associated with the UK’s acerbic northern groups, Sleaford Mods and Benefits the Band. Both of those bands use recorded tracks and spoken voice to create angry diatribes on the state of the world.

An Illusion of Escape

While Metal Horse doesn’t have as much visceral anger as Benefits or as much scorn as the Mods, Nomates has an underlying world-weariness which infuses her music with a far harder edge than one is used to hearing these days. These sound like the songs of someone who could use the escape offered by a merry-go-round at the fairgrounds – but who knows full well that it will only be an illusion of relief.

Metal Horse sounds like Lucinda Williams met up with Joy Division at some point and let them influence her musical choices. It’s perhaps not as hard-driving as late-’70s folk from Manchester, but not synthpop either. These songs may not be as harsh as those of her contemporaries from the north of England, but they aren’t soft little pop tunes either. 

Nomates’ voice is an expressive vehicle which can switch from one emotion to another with grace. You have no trouble believing what she is singing about and you can understand her lyrics on a visceral level. 

On the song “Nothin’ Worth Winnin'” she sings’ “My best friend is dying/Nothing to do/Giving up trying/Lustin’ after you/I live in a nightmare/But I guess this is nice/I don’t have the right here/And I don’t have advice”. Sung to a somewhat upbeat synth/pop tune, it takes a bit for the lyrics to sink in, but when they do – they show a maturity of thought and emotion one doesn’t expect from pop music.

Metal Horse from Billy Nomates is an album that will probably fly under most people’s radars – but it’s also one that needs to be listened to. A thoughtful and evocative album that will make you think.