Nora Kelly Band So Wrong for So Long
Do you have a friend – especially, maybe, a divorced kinda friend – who is reentering the world at large by diving headfirst into social media and online dating and such? The new record from Nora Kelly Band, So Wrong for So Long, might be the “slow your roll” album they need to hear (especially if they haven’t sampled any genuinely new music in a while). Kelly’s songs carry enough wisdom (born out of more than a few life mistakes) to give listeners a moment to ask themselves, “Is this really what I want to do?”
In the process of recording So Wrong for So Long, their second studio album, the Montreal-based band shuffled its lineup, adding members while enlarging its sound (think more strings and keys). They also refocused on making music their living, both collectively and as individuals, and that renewed sense of purpose shows up in “Scapegoats,” a jangly tune with just a bit of Crazy Horse chug. The lyrics find Kelly assessing her current state – “I realize as I board the plane/Six years on medication/Nearly every cell’s changed” – and deciding that, even amid messy relationships and career uncertainty, she’s the one ultimately in charge – “So I’ll take the scapegoats out to pasture/If I’m really, if I’m really their master.”
Personal responsibility should serve as enough motivation for that newly feral friend, but if they need further encouragement to fly right, a couple of songs further into So Wrong truly drive the point home. “Don’t Lay Your Cards Out” is a twangy caution against oversharing, be it at the bar or on Facebook – “Saying things you can’t walk back from/You’ve made your point and then some” – with a good-hearted singalong at the end. And “The Murder of Mr. Lucky” goes from a dating app mishap to a twisted ballad. Singing from the point of view of the (misnamed, as it turns out) Mr. Lucky, Kelly takes her cad of a character from disappointment – “Less pretty than the pictures, and I told her so” – to death by poisoning – “My throat closed up and her face got hazy/The first words she spoke to me were ‘How you feeling, baby?’’ But Kelly and her band have a soft spot for life’s most resilient folks. “The Fighter,” with warm pedal steel, pays tribute to the ones who, like that friend trying to restart their life, stubbornly won’t quit, even though they’re covered in “scars that once hurt you but are now good friends.” As musicians trying to make a go of it in 2026, I’ll bet those scars – and that stubbornness – feel more than a little familiar.
Song I Can’t Wait to Hear Live: “Cryin’” – discordant guitars and a vocal nod to Roy Orbison makes this a stand-out country weeper.
So Wrong for So Long was produced by Marcus Paquin and Nora Kelly, engineered by Paquin, Andrew Woods, Ethan Soil and Gwen Dumontet, mixed by Paquin and mastered by Joao Carvalho. All songs written and recorded by Nora Kelly Band. Musicians on the album include Nora Kelly (vocals, guitar), Rachel Silverstein (keyboards, vocals), Ethan Soil (drums, timpani, percussion), Dylan Keating (pedal steel), Patrick Rendell (guitars), Ellie Macphee (fiddle) and Scott ‘Monty’ Munro (bass).
Go here to order So Wrong for So Long (out May 22): https://norakellyband.bandcamp.com/merch
Check out tour dates here: https://norakellyband.bandcamp.com/album/so-wrong-for-so-long