KWCW

On her fifth solo album, New York singer-songwriter Nina Nastasia gives full billing to longtime drummer Jim White, a contributor since 2003’s “Run to Ruin.” However, for the first time, White, also a member of Nick Cave’ Bad Seeds and the Dirty Three, among others, feels like a major collaborator, making himself a part of both the songwriting process and the performance of these songs.
Compared to her earlier full band arrangements, “You Follow Me” is nearly skeletal, reduced to guitar, vocals, and White’s drum kit. They are further accented by Steve Albini’s production, which makes the album’s minimal instrumentation strikingly rich. Though Nastasia has two of the three instruments in use, neither she nor White allow each other total control over any track. When White could fall into the background, he unpredictably erupts into flurries of percussion, almost always when Nastasia is at her loudest and her most commanding, like on “In the Evening” or “I Come After You.”
While singer-songwriters playing guitar are often annoyingly dull, this collaboration elevates an already compelling songwriter into new territory, turning songs about conversations into hauntingly spare, full-on musical conversations as well. The results are both difficult and rewarding.
Grade: B
Andrew Hall

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 21st, 2007 at 1:14 pm and is filed under Folk/Americana. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.