Nourished By Time speaks to something bigger on The Passionate Ones
On his second album, Marcus Brown makes the case for dedicating yourself to something difficult.
Image: XL Records
Marcus Brown was angry when he made his first album under the moniker Nourished By Time. After a stint at Berklee College Of Music, the musician moved to Los Angeles, where he worked at Whole Foods, in a barber shop, and in construction before moving back in with his parents in Baltimore. Brown had come face-to-face with the reality that it’s near-impossible to even be a struggling artist these days; our social safety net has been shredded, the federal minimum wage hasn’t risen since 2009, and the rent is too damn high. Forgoing most friends and romance and big city life, Brown dedicated himself to his craft, writing and self-producing Erotic Probiotic 2 in the studio he salvaged from his parents’ basement. It paid off.
In the 28 months since that first Nourished By Time album, Brown’s life changed significantly. His music brought critical acclaim, which brought major label attention, which brought international tours, a Late Show performance, and a recent move to New York, which Brown has expressed ambivalence about. Even with the success, it still makes the most sense to have a roommate. Even with a record deal, the rent is still too damn high. But Brown has other things on his mind on The Passionate Ones, his second album, out this week. There is still righteous anger, but he has further honed his impressionistic lyricism and kaleidoscopic production and applied it to a spectrum of passions: love, religion, political outrage, art.