British singer-songwriter Billie Marten has an intimate touch when it comes to songwriting — her sparse, melancholic folk tunes can feel like a whispered conversation.
On her fifth album, Dog Eared, Marten turns the page to a richer, fuller sound with a band recorded live in-studio without headphones.
The title of the album is a nod to her love of books and reading. “A dog-eared book is an image in my head that is very worn and thumbed-through,” she told Atwood Magazine. “And I guess I feel like that sometimes.”
The folk-jazz experimentation throughout the album weaves around Marten’s steady songwriting, making the album feel like a well-read novel with discoveries on each listen. In the same wheelhouse as Humbird, a band KAXE listeners are very familiar with, Dog Eared plays around with the unexpected. Moments in songs that you need to rewind just to listen again to what it is you heard.
Marten was signed to Chess Club Records by 15 years old after getting noticed on the YouTube account she started at 9. Now in her mid-20s, she brings a kind of quiet confidence and maturity with the new album. Working with producer Philip Weinrobe (Adrianne Lenker, Laura Veirs, Tomberlin), Marten leans into warm textures, letting her voice move through space with ease.
Dog Eared is the kind of record that stays with you, begging for another listen — dog-eared and worn in all the best ways.
Must Listens
- "Feeling"
- "Crown"
- "Clover"
- "The Glass"
- "Goodnight Moon"
- "You and I Both"
- "Swing"
