Bells Larsen – Blurring Time

Context for an album is sometimes almost as important as the music itself, and nothing truer can be said about this new album, Blurring Time, from the Montreal-based Bells Larsen. That name has been popping up throughout the media for much of April after we learned that his visa to tour in the US (one that had already been set up) was declined because “his passport has an M gender marker,” which does not align with the identification he was assigned at birth.

A bit ironically, this whole album of soft, gorgeous, twee indie folk is all about Bells’ transition and his trans identity. Before the whole visa story broke, I had listened to Blurring Time once and though it was a fine calming album, but it was only later that I really clued in to the simplistic lyrical beauty of it. And now, I can’t help but pick out certain lyrics like the verses in the opener title track: “Maleficent social construct / If it is all made up / Why do I give a fuck? / I don’t want to define myself by / Who I’m not and I’m trying / This is my battle cry…” Or another lyrical phrase like this one found in “514-415”: “You’re the right person wrong time.”

Bells is not clairvoyant and probably couldn’t predict the visa situation, but the lyrics in these songs seem to be intrinsically connected to the reality of living as a trans person in an unpredictably dark Trumpified world. On top of that, this album has Bells literally singing with past versions of himself. The softer, high femme vocals were recorded back in 2022 before he started taking testosterone, and the lower vocals were then arranged by his friend Georgia Harmer.

So we have both of Bells’ voices singing in harmony about his inner thoughts and transitional process on songs like “Questions” and “Composured Verneer” and it’s mesmerizing. I need to mention the backing instrumentation, which really sends this album into another space: Daniel Crowther (Electric Guitar, Guitar Percussion, Pedal Steel) Graham Ereaux (Guitar, Percussion, Hand Percussion, Piano) and Evan Matthews (Bass, Drums, Electric Guitar, Percussion, Piano, Synth).

Blurring Time is lo-fi, politically driven folk, and might be one of the most vulnerable, interpersonal albums I’ve ever heard.