Clementine Valentine
The Coin That Broke The Fountain Floor
Album · Pop · 2023
On their first album since retiring the Purple Pilgrims moniker, sisters Clementine and Valentine Nixon graduate from their self-produced earlier work with a more expansive realisation of their billowing, mythic-sounding dream pop. Tapping producer and string arranger Randall Dunn (Oneohtrix Point Never) and drummer Matt Chamberlain (David Bowie, Lana Del Rey), the Aotearoa New Zealand duo create music that’s equally ornate and beguiling. Their vocals alternately recall Kate Bush and Dead Can Dance’s Lisa Gerrard, sometimes playing like another moody instrument rather than a vehicle for clear lyrical messages. Musically, the Nixon sisters gently guide their sound through noisy shoegaze (“Endless Night”), celestial New Age (“Time and Tide”) and eerie folk (“The Rope”). With its reeling strings and haunted-house organ, “The Understudy” lives up to its title by doubling down on theatrical flourishes. The closing “All Yesterdays Flowers” is especially robust, pointing toward almost operatic potential in the future.