Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	64/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The Guardian
The Independent
NME
Pitchfork Media	(5.0/10)
Uncut	(favorable)
The Music Service	7/10
The Wild Honey Pie

Heart of Nowhere is the fourth and final studio album by English rock band Noah and the Whale. The record was released on 6 May 2013 on Mercury Records. The album is paired with a half-hour short film of the same name.

The album was partially inspired by the touring schedule of Last Night on Earth, and vocalist/guitarist Charlie Fink finding a close friend engaged upon returning home. "I didn't know what was going on in my friends' lives because I'd been away for so long, and also because that seems like a defining moment in a group of people's lives," he remarked.

Prior to recording, the band spent two weeks writing in isolation on Osea Island in the Blackwater Estuary. Afterwards, the band trekked to La Fabrique in the south of France to continue writing, but less work was completed due to distractions. "They were knocking the place down, so we had one room while the building was coming down around us!" said vocalist/guitarist Charlie Fink. The band recorded the album at British Grove Studios in Chiswick, London over the course of two weeks. The band wanted to have confidence in each song and its ability to stand on its own, and purposefully recorded the record live. Lyrically, the album chronicles the end of adolescence and memories of friendship. The transition to adulthood – with marriage as one of the final tollbooths – is the central concept of the album. "One of the main themes, beyond nostalgia and the end of adolescence, is acceptance. It starts off with a first song that's a melodramatic story of a kid wanting to break away from his family, basically, to acceptance of your family and who you are and who you want to be as a man," said Fink.

Fink's original intention was to pair the record with a film, but was unable to develop a story until several tracks were written. Co-written with Charlotte Colbert, the Heart of Nowhere short film, which runs for a half-hour, continues the themes of the record. The film revolves around four friends on a teenagers-only island, separated from society. When the quartet learn they are to be taken away to The City to become adults, they must make their final night together meaningful.

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