Billy Nomates’s eponymous first album (2020) and subsequent EP, Emergency Telephone (2021), introduced a singular new talent. Based in Bristol and fiercely independent, this caustic solo singer-songwriter, born Tor Maries, came at most subjects – from positivity to high heels to charity muggers – from oblique angles, her sometimes sung, often spoken delivery full of original phrasing.
Best described as a punk with a keyboard and tunes to burn, Nomates has dug even deeper for Cacti, her songwriting broadening its reach. Her deadpan takedowns remain heroic. “Don’t you act like I ain’t the fucking man,” she bristles on Spite, a song about coming to a party to spoil someone’s fun. But there’s a sadness to tracks such as Fawner that threatens to spill over into country and western, and a honky-tonk piano is the unexpected element on Same Gun.
