Steve Hartlett
Solitude For Dummies

THE REVIEW

Solitude for Beginners.
I don't believe the title is due to this epochal pandemic (certified) or simply from a common depressive state for many, a low-fidelity but warm attitude, like those few warm things that manage to warm the heart.
Steve Hartlett, oh my, he's a friend to me.
I've been following him since the first Ovlov album, or rather, since before that: I think it was a period somewhere between 2012 and 2013, or maybe it was the spring of 2013, and those singles that preceded AM, the first Ovlov album, hurt me; The Great Alligator is still one of my favorite songs of the last decade.

Then the breakup, the cutting of ties.

But Steve doesn't give up and returns as Stove, a solo project of his that didn't stray much from the previous creation: perhaps more indie, less of the wall-of-sound chaos. Is Stupider in 2015, then another couple of calmer, more dreamy EPs, perhaps too little catchy and too little alternative.
Two years ago, the grand return of Ovlov with their second work TRU, a truly solemn and timeless album: the fuzzy walls and that controversial resemblance between a more graceful Dinosaur Jr and My Bloody Valentine with more core.
Now we're here with first and last name, just him against the world, lo-fi approach and the usual broken emotion, a singer-songwriter of a generation that never existed and probably never will.

Trivia:
I dedicated a piece to Steve HERE and subsequently even a "cover" with my band HERE.