With the demise of her old band Dollys, Natalie Newbold could’ve bowed out and decided she’d had enough of gig life. After all, it’d been nearly five years she’d spent with the band. Instead, she decided to start over, forming Well Wisher, and their debut is proof she made the right choice.
This Is Fine moves away from the retro indie pop of Newbold’s old band and is more reminiscent of early 2000s pop-rock a la Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American or Anberlin’s Never Take Friendship Personal. It’s got some bite to it – that crunchy opening riff on “Believe,” phew – and even a solo or two thrown in for good measure, but it doesn’t skimp out on hooks, either. A lot of those hooks, admittedly, are quite repetitive – many but they’re pretty undeniable. The album’s simplest might be its most effective, too; although (or maybe because) the chorus of “Leave Me Like You Do” is just the title repeated six times, it’s the catchiest on the album. This Is Fine, like most good pop-rock, is built mostly around choruses, and luckily Newbold has a knack for crafting earworms.
One of the best things about This Is Fine is its runtime. At a lean ten tracks and thirty minutes, it’s a quick and extremely easy listen, ending before the nonstop hooks get tiring. It doesn’t hurt that the closing “Waste My Time” is one of the record’s standouts, either. It’ll be exciting to watch Well Wisher evolve beyond this album – it’s already a great start. This Is Fine is more than just fine, and Well Wisher won’t need well wishes going forward. It looks like they’ve got everything under control.