Nurture is the second studio album by American electronic music producer Porter Robinson, released on April 23, 2021. Like his debut album Worlds, Nurture marks a shift in Robinson's musical style,[8] and includes themes of Robinson's personal struggles with depression and his struggle to create and be proud of the music he was writing.

Following the pre-releases of several singles in the album, Nurture was released on April 23, 2021. It debuted on Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Albums at number one, marking Robinson's second album to do so, and earned unanimous acclaim from critics and audiences. Nurture made several year-end lists, including Billboard's list of the "Best Albums of 2021"[9] and Paste magazine's list of the "50 Best Albums of 2021".[10]

Background

See also: Porter Robinson § Career

Robinson experienced an initial surge of popularity at age 18,[11] after the release of several festival-oriented electronic dance music works such as "Say My Name" (2010) and Spitfire (2011). Robinson grew increasingly dissatisfied with his performances, and said that he experienced "four or five fully-blown anxiety attacks onstage" while touring for his song "Language".[12] His desire to change his musical style led him to write his debut album Worlds (2014), a work that has retrospectively been described as a "breakthrough" that precipitated a wider shift in the electronic music industry.[13] In the years following the album's release, Robinson suffered from an extended period of depression and writer's block, releasing very little music.[14] In 2016, Robinson released "Shelter", a collaboration with friend and fellow electronic producer Madeon.[15] Robinson would later cite Madeon's work on Good Faith (2019) as a key inspiration for Nurture.[16] In 2017, Robinson released Virtual Self, a eurodance- and trance-inspired production released under an alias of the same name.[17] "Ghost Voices", a single from the EP, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording the same year.[18]

In January 2020, Robinson announced the album and its lead single, "Get Your Wish".[19] The announcement was made through a video that featured cryptic messages and hints, including obscured links, dates, and geographic coordinates.[20] Robinson had also previously hidden details in the promotional material for Virtual Self.[21] Nurture was originally intended to be released in September 2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, Robinson altered the tracklist, extending the length of the album from 11 to 14 songs,[22] and releasing additional promotional singles.[14] On December 18, 2020, Robinson announced that the album was complete, and would release in "a few months".[23] The release date was later announced to be April 23, 2021.[1]

Album title and cover art

Along with the name Nurture, Robinson had also considered the name Only Hope for the album, though Nurture was more appealing to him. The name Nurture was chosen for its similarity with the word "nature", as Robinson hoped to "give people the feeling of nature", as well as the "nature versus nurture" problem, "to make [people] feel like they can change the way they think of themselves and improve themselves."[24]

The album's cover art shows Robinson lying face-down in a meadow of flowers. Working with Samuel Burgess-Johnson, Robinson did a photoshoot for the cover art in March 2020. During the photoshoot, a large number of options were considered, but Robinson on an impulse dropped face-first into the ground for the last picture, which ultimately became the album's cover art, though Robinson and Burgess-Johnson were initially imagining "a white sky and a perfect Windows XP-style hill with [Robinson] standing there or maybe not standing there." Robinson sees the cover art as reflective of the personal tone in Nurture.[25]

Themes

Several songs on Nurture explore Robinson's struggles with depression and writer's block. AllMusic's Paul Simpson writes that "Mirror" and "Something Comforting" both address Robinson's self-critical inner voice, while "Musician" focuses on overcoming the burnout that was preventing him from writing music.[15] Slant's Charles Lyons-Burt writes that "Look at the Sky" has a "sense of disillusionment", but Pitchfork's Colin Joyce notes that it also looks ahead to a brighter future, calling it a "ballad of hard-won optimism".[4] NME's Ben Jolley feels that the closing song "Trying to Be Alive" also reflects Robinson's struggles with his mental health.[11] However, Joyce feels that the song shows Robinson has realized that "struggle gives life its color in the first place".[4] According to Simpson, Robinson expresses the futility of striving for a "finish line", and instead learning to find fulfilment in simply living and creating music.[15]

Simpson notes the contrast betweeen the introspection of the album and the "fantasy, escapism, and technology" of Robinson's previous works.[15] Joyce especially highlights the thematic differences with the music video of "Shelter", which features a simulation that is created to escape a dystopic reality.[4] Jolley concludes that the closing quote of "Mirror" is a reflection of the message of the album as a whole, and of "Porter's journey as an artist".[11] Reflecting on the overall tone of the album, Entertainment Weekly's Sydney Bucksbaum writes that it is "very melancholic; there's a lot of pain, there's a lot of sadness, but there's also a lot of hope".[25]

Release

According to MRC Data, Nurture earned 14,000 equivalent album units in its first week. It was Robinson's second number one debut on the Billboard Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart after his previous studio album, Worlds.[26]

Live performances

"I realized I shouldn't write music with the expectation that the productivity or achievement will fix my problems, but instead with the hope that my honest expression will move people the way music moves me. So when I was really struggling to write and it seemed impossible, instead of thinking, 'You're struggling because you're a fraud, you're clearly not cut out for this,' I began to tell myself, 'Yeah, this is what you sacrifice.'"

 — Robinson in a letter to his fans.[17]

On April 15, 2021, Robinson announced that Secret Sky 2021, the digital version of his yearly festival Second Sky, would take place on April 24, the day after the release of Nurture.[27] At Secret Sky, Robinson premiered the live show of Nurture.[28] The first in-person renditions were performed in back-to-back performances at his Second Sky Festival on September 18–19, 2021.[29]

On May 10, 2021, Robinson announced the Nurture Live Tour, with support from Jai Wolf.[30] He later announced the addition of more dates and additional support from James Ivy.[31] A European version of the tour was announced in December 2021, becoming his first European headline tour in five years.[32] A six stop Asia tour was announced in 2023.[33]

Robinson performed his final United States Nurture live show at the 2023 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.[34] An Australia tour with support from jamesjamesjames was announced later that year in July, becoming his first tour of the country in six years.[35]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?7.5/10[36]
Metacritic78/100[37]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[15]
Clash8/10[38]
The Line of Best Fit9/10[2]
musicOMH[39]
NME[11]
Our Culture[14]
Pitchfork7.6/10[4]
PopMatters7/10[6]
Slant Magazine[3]
Spectrum Culture75%[5]

At Metacritic, Nurture has an aggregate score of 78, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[37]

Sophie Walker from The Line of Best Fit wrote, "While Nurture may feel disordered, it's a kind of chaos that can only come with passion – and that is a sound Porter Robinson has more than earned the right to explore", scoring it a 9/10.[2]

Josh Crowe of Clash magazine, in his 8/10 review, wrote, "The lyrical frenzies, when coupled with competing instrumentation, at times feels perhaps too frantic, but you can't fault the producer's efforts to craft a body of work that carries more substance than clubby touchstones."[38]

Ben Devlin of musicOMH gave the album 4 out of 5 stars, writing that "Nurture is not a perfect record – it's a bit too samey for an hour-long release" but also that Robinson "has developed a niche that is fun, vivid and enthralling."[39]

In his review for Spectrum Culture, Aaron Pasking wrote that "Nurture is honest, consistent and focused, an improvement on Worlds in almost every way. Like any great sophomore album, Nurture sees its creator develop a unique musical personality while holding onto the qualities that made them successful in the first place."[5]

In a review for PopMatters, Chris Conaton wrote "Nurture is maybe a little too long of an album for 2021-level attention spans, but after seven years and a notable case of writer's block, it's understandable that Robinson would want to go big. Not every song here is top-notch, but Robinson's relentless insistence on catchy melodies makes it all quite listenable."[6]

Year-end lists

Publication List Rank Ref.
Billboard Best Albums of 2021
30
[9]
The Fader The 50 Best Albums of 2021
1
[7]
Our Culture The 50 Best Albums of 2021
1
[40]
Paste The 50 Best Albums of 2021
41
[10]
Slant The 50 Best Albums of 2021
30
[41]

Nurture was featured on multiple year-end lists for the best albums of 2021, being ranked as the best album of 2021 by The Fader [7] and Our Culture Mag.[40] Promotional single "Look at the Sky" was ranked on the 2021 best song lists of Billboard,[42] The Fader,[43] and Our Culture,[44] while "Musician" placed on NPR's annual lists of the best electronic music[45] and the best songs.[46]

Charts

Chart (2021) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[47] 27
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[48] 57
Japan Hot Albums (Billboard Japan)[49] 50
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[50] 74
UK Dance Albums (OCC)[51] 5
US Billboard 200[52] 52
US Independent Albums (Billboard)[53] 6
US Top Dance/Electronic Albums (Billboard)[54] 1

Track listing

All tracks are written by Porter Robinson, except where noted

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Lifelike" 1:35
2."Look at the Sky" 5:10
3."Get Your Wish" 3:39
4."Wind Tempos"
6:04
5."Musician"
3:59
6."Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do" 3:35
7."Mother" 3:46
8."Dullscythe" 4:00
9."Sweet Time" 4:12
10."Mirror" 5:07
11."Something Comforting" 4:42
12."Blossom" 3:46
13."Unfold" (with Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs)
4:46
14."Trying to Feel Alive" 4:40
Total length:59:01
Japanese edition bonus track
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
15."Fullmoon Lullaby" (with Wednesday Campanella)
4:03
Total length:63:04

Notes

References

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  55. ^ Robinson, Porter [@porterrobinson] (April 23, 2021). "the guitar in this part is played by one of my musical heroes yvette young !! @youyve #nurture" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  56. ^ Robinson, Porter [@porterrobinson] (April 23, 2021). "i listened to and love that music and that's what drove me to dive into Wind Tempos – ultimately i included like a 0.5 second long sample of him playing the toy piano from while we were at his home, just as a little wax seal to close the love letter" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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