Cargo Records

Bright Lights & Filthy Nights

This new album is her most personal yet, both intimate and other-worldy, underpinned with a gamut of emotions and a healthy dose of Nina's humour. The haunting Sweetest Cure wafts in on a bed of flutey tones intertwining with Nina's guitar and classically-trained Audrey Riley's cello, one of the album's defining sounds.

The psychedelic undertow of this track, appealingly-vulnerable love song Sail and gorgeous Maybe [complete with gargling rabbit chorus and theremin-like melodies] recall anything from 60s underground acid-folk mavericks like Pearls Before Swine to the log-cabin confessionals of Bon Iver as gentle melodies sigh and fizz in the distance while Nina displays her deceptively-strong, lived-through voice. Storms, sung with Gareth Thomas, conjures an autumnal feel with Audrey's cello and subtle electronic swells, somewhat recalling John Cale's work with Nico in the late 60s.

Reference points can be a bit silly but this album does evoke some of that period's overlooked but highly-influential artists. I Believed In You is another atmospheric soundscape topped with eerie sci-fi melodies and heavily-treated vocals, a disembodiedly beautiful feel continued with the deep cello heaves and subtly-shifting electronic melodies of Narcissist. Changing mood again, Bright Lights And Filthy Nights is a catchy, lyrically-poignant slice of urban folk, then offset by the mischievous whoopee of Love Leech, helped by Max Garrett. One of the highlights is Industrial Folk, a collaboration with Spooky's Charlie May which charts similar hallucino-folk terrain to Tim Buckley's Goodbye And Hello with its shimmering textures and marimba tones.

After the brief, John Fahey bounce of No Deliverance, the defiant, spirit-hoisting Strong steams in, boasting an air-punching chorus which would be a worldwide smash if Oasis had done it [coming with whirring swamp-gas bonus remix]. Finally the gentle Goodnight My Sweet, sends the album out on a rippling bed of swirling textures and baroque subtleties.

The main thing which comes over here is the personality and panoramic musical visions of a wonderful, restless spirit, hopping from mood to mood like the rabbits she loves. Timeless tackle.

Track Listing

1. Sweetest Cure
2. Sail
3. Maybe
4. Storms
5. I Believed In You
6. Narcissist
7. Bright Lights & Filthy Nights
8. Love Leech
9. Industrial Folk
10. No Deliverance
11. Strong
12. Goodnight my sweet