Everybody Needs a Hero is an endlessly fun record from Orla Gartland

Being able to commit to things you love without restraint is a blessing. That’s the healthy relationship she’s had with music. Acquiring her reputation via YouTube during the pre-label days allowed her to remain truthful to her craft, and since starting a Patreon account to form a closed community that will always have her back, she’s been eyeing the possibility of independence. Made under the mindset of self-rule, Everybody Needs A Hero is unbound – a just-right, multi-genre cacophony of listless love and devotion. It demonstrates her prowess as a bona fide alt-pop girlie truly “on her terms”: delightfully awkward and endlessly fun.

If Woman on the Internet is more diverse in subject matter, the adventurous melange of eclectic styles compensates for Everybody Needs A Hero’s centred narrative. Chronicling, as she states in the interview with Billboard, the exhaustive roller coaster of a romantic relationship, Gartland selects genres as if letting chance decide for her by spinning the wheel of all interests five times, or more. “Both Can Be True” is a soft-pedalled ballad; “Sound of Letting Go” is a twisted alt-pop anthem; “Little Chaos” is an ecstatic rock mayhem; “Backseat Driver” is an acid trip on crashing cars. It’s all over the place in a rapturous, entertaining way.

Despite never quite getting bored by its versatility, you might get pronounced flashes of other up-there artists by which she could be inspired. “Who Am I?”, a natural follow-up to the Heartstopper hit “Why Am I Like This?”, possibly stems from the same musical wellspring as Olivia Rodrigo’s “pretty isn’t pretty”, both delving into a premature identity crisis but tackling different areas of insecurity. “The Hit” has the catchiness of a Lucy Dacus song, teetering on volatile verses and firm choruses. Look no further than the album cover, doesn’t it recall Caroline Polachek’s Pang? Her identity can shapeshift; it still, to her disadvantage, isn’t instantly distinguishable.

Gartland’s songwriting remains occasionally obscure but is sweetened by the record’s focused storytelling. This time she brings her ex-roommate Lauren Aquilina, who has contributed lyrics to Rina Sawayama and Demi Lovato’s songs, to refine some lines together. “I’d like to make an announcement / I know I’m not as tough as I look,” she speaks through gritted teeth on the glorious closer and career highlight. Her words are precise and honest where they should be, and that makes Everybody Needs A Hero a fine upgrade from the ambitious debut. Granted, with her existential lyricism, she is already in some way a hero for some listeners. So far, everything is hunky-dory.