Noah Hill – Ok Ok Now

Sometimes you listen to an album, and you can tell the artist is exactly where they want to be. Authentic, moving and deeply personal, Noah Hill’s debut solo project is a wonder. Far from the sound of his well-loved Australian band Parcels, of which he is a fifth, Hill has carved out a path of emotion, vulnerability and the beauty in memory, even if that memory is painful.

Once in a Lifetime opens; guitar plucks, smooth electric, subtle drums and a careful building of overlaid vocals melting together to make the type of folk you can get lost in. It’s All in My Head carries this feeling on, a stronger guitar holding it up with soft synths adding an echoing depth as he tells us that it’s “been a rough year”. Bye Baby is a branch off of the folk tree Hill has been climbing so far. It’s more sensual, even jazzy, the type that would play in a dark-lit bar, leaning into slow-jam. In Sympathise, he is honest with the worst parts of himself, the lyrics not hiding anything: “I don’t feel love when I see you.” With honeysweet vocals throughout, listening to each song invites warmth and reflection.

It’s a short project; 12 tracks, four of which are interludes. The value of an interlude is in the eye of the beholder, some loving a snippet and some finding it a cop-out. Hill’s are the former, and the one that stands out the most is Dengha Place. Standing at one min 33 seconds, it’s the longest interlude by far; with just a muffled piano and an in-and-out conversation, it feels like we are standing at a door ajar, just outside the party, an ear in on his life, much like the album itself. At 19 seconds, Love’s Die is a swift gut punch. “Will I ever love anyone as much as I love Noah?” the woman asks. “Yes”, the dice responds. It pulls the listener right back in.

Ok Ok Now flickers in and out of a relationship, out of time, covering love, guilt, apathy, fear, mundanity, regret, and hope. Hill has been writing over the course of a decade, penning the lyrics at the time of an inspiring event rather than in retrospect. From that, Ok Ok Now becomes a life inside of an album.

Talitha Stowell
Image: Melissa Gardner

Ok Ok Now is released on 4^th September 2026. For further information or to order the album, visit Noah Hill’s website here.

Watch the video for Bye Babyhere: