Filthy Underneath

オルタナティヴでクールなガレージ・フォークと評される英シンガー・ソングライター、Nadine Shahの5作目となるニュー・アルバムが完成。

For her fifth album (and first for the EMI North label), Nadine Shah worked closely with producer Ben Hillier (Depeche Mode, Elbow), who also contributed as a performer, co-writer, and mixer. The passion, however, is all Shahs. Titled Filthy Underneath, it was written during a period of relentless turmoil in Shahs life that included the death of her mother, a suicide attempt, rehab, and divorce. Despite this -- or perhaps in defiance -- the resulting album is far from dispirited, as she yet again tweaks her theatrical, gothy art-rock sound toward something thats glossy, dissonant, and primordial, with consistently strong grooves, thumping unison tom-toms, and Eastern musical modes weaving their way in throughout. It opens with a clanging, alarm-type attack and a distant cacophony of bells on "Even Light," before the song launches into a skittering groove under elephantine electronic tones. When Shahs voice eventually enters, its with an assertive, octave-leaping melody and a vocal delivery punctuated by affected enunciation, something she plays with throughout the album. Working in tandem with the music are confrontational lyrics like "Are your feelings hurt?/Is your ego bruised?/Am I touching on a nerve?" Confrontational aspects only increase on "Topless Mother," a horns-, overdrive-, and chant-injected entry with a chorus that rhymes iguana, samosa, Medusa, and much more. Conspicuous Sufi music inspirations then mark "Food for Fuel," which features a pitch-bending drone and clanking cowbell. Its another song that touches on themes of creation and motherhood as well as emotional triggers. While comparisons with Nick Cave and PJ Harvey clung to Shah from early in her career, here, she and Hillier at times suggest a distorted blend of Adam and the Ants, Siouxsie Sioux, and Alison Moyet, without ever sounding mired in the 80s. While the force of Filthy Underneath never truly relents, there are songs like the lush, theatrical ballad "Keeping Score," the Moyet-esque "See My Girl," and part-spoken "Sad Lads Anonymous" that offer space to breathe, even if nothing here is without animated percussion, needling keyboard/electronic timbres, and the feeling of something to overcome -- even bone-dry closer "French Exit" ("just a quiet way out"). It all makes for Shahs most exciting collection yet. ~ Marcy Donelson