Billy Nomates Metalhorse
Billy Nomates's Metalhorse arrives as a staged, cinematic funfair of grief and reinvention, where noir atmospheres and retro rock impulses collide with piano-led melodies and live-band energy. Across five professional reviews the record earned a 67.8/100 consensus score, and critics repeatedly point to moments of rawne
The Test is the album's best song due to its piano-and-drums drive and evocative comparison to The Weather Station.
The album’s core strengths are its honest grief-driven themes and moments of stark restraint, but it falters through repetition and missed dramatic opportunities.
Best for listeners looking for resilience and loss, starting with Nothing Worth Winnin and Dark Horse Friend.
Full consensus notes
Billy Nomates's Metalhorse arrives as a staged, cinematic funfair of grief and reinvention, where noir atmospheres and retro rock impulses collide with piano-led melodies and live-band energy. Across five professional reviews the record earned a 67.8/100 consensus score, and critics repeatedly point to moments of rawness and restraint as the album's most effective moves. Critics agree that Maries has sharpened her songwriting, even when the show's trimmings sometimes overshadow the emotional core.
Reviewers consistently name standout tracks that define the best songs on Metalhorse. “Dark Horse Friend” and “The Test” emerge as recurring highlights, praised for their slinky noir textures and propulsive piano-and-drums drive; “Plans” and “Strange Gift” are often cited for their tenderness and cinematic finish; “Nothing Worth Winnin” is singled out for pared-back synth-punk immediacy. Professional reviews note the record's thematic throughlines - funfair metaphor, illness and resilience, and the tension between edgy repetition and melodic restraint - and credit Maries with greater sophistication in emotional storytelling.
Not all critics are unanimous: some find the funfair conceit and production flourishes occasionally distract from the album's stronger, quieter songs, while others celebrate the genre-leaping ambition and live-band friction as signs of reinvention. Taken together, the critical consensus suggests Metalhorse is a daring, uneven but often rewarding record that marks a significant step in Billy Nomates' evolution, with several must-listen tracks that justify attention and repeated plays.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Nothing Worth Winnin
1 mention
"the pared-back synth-punk track ‘Nothing Worth Winnin’, where the sound of slot machines paying out underscores a meditation"— Clash Music
Dark Horse Friend
5 mentions
"A more unpredictable move is the unfolding “Dark Horse Friend,” where a male voice, The Stranglers’ frontman Hugh Cornwell, enters the fore"— The Line of Best Fit
Darkhorse (title track)
1 mention
"piano, guitar and vocals tumble over one another to create a haphazard lounge singer-esque backdrop."— Far Out Magazine
A more unpredictable move is the unfolding “Dark Horse Friend,” where a male voice, The Stranglers’ frontman Hugh Cornwell, enters the fore
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Metalhorse
Nothin Worth Winnin
The Test
Override
Dark Horse Friend
Life's Unfair
Plans
Gas
Comedic Timing
Strange Gift
Moon Explodes
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 7 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
The tender shimmer of “Strange Gift” and the rousing pulse of “Plans” further cement which are the best songs on Metalhorse, offering catharsis and uplift across a daring, genre-leaping record.
Key Points
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The album’s core strengths are its thematic unity of grief and resilience and its adventurous, genre-blending sonic palette.
Themes
mu
Critic's Take
Billy Nomates returns with Metalhorse, an album forged from grief and diagnosis that nonetheless feels like Maries arriving fully formed. The review highlights the best tracks - “The Test” and “Comedic Timing” - praising the piano- and drums-led propulsion of “The Test” and the seasoned cool of “Comedic Timing”. It also singles out the slinky noir of “Dark Horse Friend” and the propulsive, intrusive-thoughts theme-song quality of “Plans”, all of which show added depth and melody. Overall, the record is judged Maries' best yet, a step up in sophistication and emotional weight.
Key Points
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The Test is the album's best song due to its piano-and-drums drive and evocative comparison to The Weather Station.
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The album's core strengths are increased sophistication, emotional weight drawn from personal loss and illness, and stronger melodies.
Themes
Fa
Critic's Take
In his exuberant, conversational tone Dale Maplethorpe insists that Billy Nomates's Metalhorse is a record you must hear - a pocket of music you can’t climb out of that wears its blues, '60s and '70s rock influences proudly yet sounds wholly original. He singles out “Life's Unfair” and “Strange Gift” as pinnacle moments, praising the emotive, almost improvised-feeling vocals and stripped-back soul that make these the best songs on Metalhorse. The review blends affectionate hyperbole with concrete musical detail, celebrating the live-band studio energy that turns tracks like “Gas” and “Dark Horse Friend” into joyful highlights. Overall, Maplethorpe's voice remains exuberant and direct: this is a shit hot album you should listen to, move to, and be moved by.
Key Points
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Strange Gift is best because its stripped-back minimalism showcases raw soul and hooks the listener in an irresistible pocket of music.
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The album’s core strengths are its live-band energy, powerful emotive vocals, and successful blending of '60s/'70s influences into original songs.
Themes
Critic's Take
Billy Nomates leans into reinvention on Metalhorse, where piano-led melodies let her voice push forward with purpose. The opener “Metalhorse” and lead single “The Test” exemplify this shift, the former letting Nomates' notes flutter aloft and the latter marrying synth instincts with heartland rock. At times softer numbers like “Life's Unfair” and “Strange Gift” momentarily dull her singularity, yet the album largely succeeds in balancing risk, pleasure and exhilaration. This is where Nomates resides now - bold, unpolished, and often triumphant.
Key Points
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The opener “Metalhorse” is best for showcasing Nomates' newfound piano-led scope and soaring vocal delivery.
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The album's core strength is balancing risky reinvention with commanding vocal presence and larger-than-life arrangements.
Themes
Critic's Take
There are clear high points on Metalhorse, where Tor Maries’ stubbornness yields songs that actually land, notably “Moon Explodes” and “Strange Gift”. The widescreen finish of “Moon Explodes” and the stripped-back starkness of “Strange Gift” show the best tracks on Metalhorse - moments when the production serves the emotion rather than masking it. Elsewhere, tracks such as “Plans” and “The Test” promise anger and grit but too often back away, leaving the album circling its own conceit. Ultimately the best songs on Metalhorse are those that embrace restraint and rawness, rather than the funfair trimmings that dominate much of the record.
Key Points
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The best song is the widescreen “Moon Explodes” because it delivers the album's fullest emotional payoff.
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The album’s core strengths are its honest grief-driven themes and moments of stark restraint, but it falters through repetition and missed dramatic opportunities.