On the day she released her stunning 2016 debut album Writing Of Blues And Yellows, we named young British folk-rock balladeer Billie Marten an Artist To Watch. She returned with Feeding Seahorses By Hand in 2019. Now aged 21, the former teen phenom is back today to announce her third album, Flora Fauna, and share its lead single.

“Garden Of Eden,” which is also the album opener, showcases a more percussive take on Marten’s graceful sound on the verses before toggling to full-fledged beauty on the chorus. According to Marten’s statement, that contrast was quite purposeful:

It’s a song of growth, and competition to evolve as individuals in an increasingly suffocating and vacuous society. I liked the idea of humans growing up like tomatoes in the greenhouse, needing water and oxygen and space, but not getting any of it. The idea of seeking the natural elements and needing only that to survive plays into my constant dichotomy of living urban or bucolic. The choruses act as a burst of relief to allow space to breathe and to express that want of living right. This was one of the first pivotal songs for me as the general sentiment breeds happiness and optimism, which is something I wasn’t particularly familiar with thus far.

A video for “Garden Of Eden” by Marten and Lydia Poole is viewable below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Garden Of Eden”
02 “Creature Of Mine”
03 “Human Replacement”
04 “Liquid Love”
05 “Heaven”
06 “Ruin”
07 “Pigeon”
08 “Kill The Clown”
09 “Walnut”
10 “Aquarium”

Flora Fauna is out 5/21 on Fiction.