Andrew Belle, in my opinion, is one of the most diverse, clever, versatile artists to break forth from the ho-hum, bland genre of “coffee house shop singer – songwriters”. He has a more broad scope of songs that are a tab bit more relatable (“Oh My Stars”, “Sky’s Still Blue”, “All Those Pretty Lights”, to name a few of many), and most impressively, won the John Lennon songwriting award for his outstanding form of songwriting.
But let’s fast forward to his current record, Nightshade. It released August 2021, in still an ongoing pandemic. Over the last decade & a half, Belle has evolved from soft playing guitars to a more mature, retrospective sound with synths and electronic vibes to his music and that’s exactly what Nightshade sounds like: Mature. Nightshade was his first album at the time in four years since 2017’s Dive Deep.
Belle began writing for Nightshade in 2018. He says of the impressive LP, “My goal — as it’s always been — was to create a moody, impactful, sonic atmosphere that someone will find, ingest over the course of 3-4 listens, and leave a mark on a season of their life”. To add, Andrew recorded the LP at a recording studio in El Paso, Tx called Sonic Ranch.
His new record has sounds of Gunship & Radiohead in it. In fact, he evokes comparison a little bit to that of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. All in all, Nightshade is a record that will be a standout for sure, in my book, at the end of 2022 and last for generations to come.
The Neiman Cruse Report 
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