ROMANTICIZE LIFE WITH FORREST NOLAN'S 'INDIE MOVIE SOUNDTRACK'

Indie Movie Soundtrack is the 11-track debut album by indie singer-songwriter Forrest Nolan. In the lead-up to the release, Nolan and his brother Christopher Nolan (not that one) posted a short series of sitcom-inspired skits to Nolan’s YouTube channel, which feature mixed-media animation, digicam videography, and a combination of practical and VFX, forming a distinctive visual style for the musician. These videos go hand in hand with the album, establishing it as an ‘indie movie soundtrack’ that feels like it would pair well with an early 2010’s coming-of-age movie.

The album’s opener, “thank you i guess,” is an addictive electric guitar-led track. It begins with Nolan describing a girl he’s just met at a party, but he didn’t quite catch her name at the time and admits he doesn’t know much about her. In the chorus, he tries to remember what she looks like: “I think her eyes are blue or green or something in between.” It’s the spark of initial interest after meeting someone for the first time, and over the next few days you can’t stop thinking about them, and you’re kicking yourself because you “lost her number.” The slight blown-out distortion effects on Nolan’s voice and guitar give the song a particular analog texture, as if he’s retelling the meet-cute story to a friend over the phone and word-vomiting every possible detail he can remember.

We then get to meet the girl in “of everyone in the world…” The track opens with a female vocalist credited as “Love Interest,” whose sweet voice is layered over light ukulele strumming. Nolan and Love Interest take turns singing, as though having a conversation, and they eventually sing together as the song progresses. It’s a wholesome duet that you could picture playing over a montage of a young couple who are falling in love for the first time, thinking about all the couple-ly things they want to do together. It features one of my favorite lyrics of the album, which is repeated several times as the bridge as the two characters take turns singing it to each other: “I thought I was invisible, but you said so is love.”

“drama queens” is a song you can’t help but dance to, with a fun bass line, tambourine, claps, and Nolan’s signature scratchy electric guitar. It encapsulates the feeling after you’ve been on a first date with someone, where you can’t stop thinking about them and wanting to take it to the next step. It gives off a similar energy as "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by Jet, with sprinklings of The Strokes’ early albums. The bridge is a highlight, with Nolan singing a call and response with a crowd:

One, two, three, she’s my drama queen
I said, four, five, six, I wanna be her king
I said, seven, eight, nine, ‘cause you look so fine
And then I think about you, night and day, and just about every other time

We then get a completely different sound with “sweet thing,” a smooth and slight R&B-style track coming in at just under a minute long. It feels like we’re in Nolan’s daydream as he sings about this girl he’s infatuated with. His dialogue is cut off abruptly as the song ends, like he’s suddenly snapped out of the daydream.  

“my girl could too” brings us back to the playful sound of the beginning of the album, and it’s another song that gets you moving. Nolan has now put the girl on a pedestal, singing about how cool he thinks she is, and wondering how someone like her would want to be with someone like him.

The following track is “best case scenario”, full of buzzy synths and whimsical guitar where Nolan is so obsessed with who he’s singing about that he doesn’t even care if his heart gets broken, as long as he gets some time with them.

“what i’m like without you” comes across as a reflection of a previous relationship. It’s an intimate song - just Nolan, his ukulele and some bittersweet whistling. He thinks back to all the little mundane moments he remembers from this relationship such as eating breakfast, living with roommates, and having a photo they took as his lockscreen - everyday things that remind him of the past and he can’t seem to completely let go. 

“homeworkk” is a short and sweet song, referencing a common scene in coming of age movies where two people go to each others’ houses to do homework, often as a way to hang out outside of school for the first time. “no takebacks” is Nolan’s way of saying he’s ready to go all into this relationship, ready to take the leap and see how it goes. 

The movie analogy is strongest with “make it to the end.” The song opens with a young girl’s voice spelling out “let’s go” that then continues in the background throughout the song, as though cheering Nolan on. It’s an endearing song that focuses on wanting to be with someone in whichever movie they’re in, or whichever universe they’re in. Nolan wants to “make it to the credits list,” wanting to know how it turns out. The pre-chorus is particularly intriguing, as it changes as the song develops. It begins with a hypothetical about two characters: will they make it? Does he call her? Will she answer? The words are then changed in the final pre-chorus; instead of ‘they’ it’s ‘we’, and becomes ‘you’ instead of ‘her’. It’s like he is once again processing the situation in real time. 

The album closes out with “would you like to go on a date with me sometime (please say yes),” which is a really cute acoustic duet by Nolan and Love Interest as they take turns singing to each other, very reminiscent of ‘Anyone But You’ sung at the movie Juno. It plays out like a conversation; the boy asks the girl out for a date, she says yes, and they discuss what they would like to do, jumping around topics as they’re nervous and smitten all at once. 

This album is full of youthful yearning that feels really refreshing to hear. It’s wholesome, familiar and depicts the experience of love and dating in such a pure way. The rollout of this album has also been quite impressive, with the music video for “thank you i guess” going viral. This feels like an important time in music and internet culture to live through, and I wonder if the album would hold up as well as it does without the accompanying music videos and YouTube skits. However, I also believe it’s all part of creating the visual world that expands the album. It’s an incredible example of how passion and creativity can produce something really special that audiences connect with. It reminds us of simpler times of first dates, handwritten notes, and the moment when you meet someone for the first time by the punch bowl at a party.