This Fool Can Die Now - Scout Niblett Album Review

Photo Credit:Daniel Corrigan

Album Review

For a woman of 33, Emma Louise Niblett aka Scout Niblett has a strikingly youthful voice. Not only that she has a curiously remarkable approach to songwriting and performance. On stage she wears a blonde wig and sings until her lungare are bursting point, apparently. On record, this English singer-songwriter ( now living Stateside ) has an earthiness that resembles the stipped and ballsy work of the White Stripes.She can do it nice and slow and emotional alongside a bit of big bang boom. Forget your KT Tunstall's et al, because this girl, well, woman actually, is bringing music a breath of fresh air. She is without doubt a trubadour, emanating a more Americana sound than British. Her so called peers appear to be Cat Power and PJ Harvey, though in terms of invention alone, she's way ahead and far more appealing. There's also a sort of Two Gallants imprint here and there, especially on the swooning ballads, like Black Hearted Queen. Bjork-ness also surfaces on drum click-thick Moon Lake ( track 3) and quirky Let Thine Heart Be Warned ( with a 70's Led Zep thrust in places ) though things start very gently on a delightful duet Do You Want To Be....with Bonny Prince Billy ( Will Oldham). Both do another masterful job on equally beautiful and simple River Of No Return, producing some gorgeous harmonies.

Highlight of this collection is another duet with the 'Prince', a sharp and expansive ballad, a la Mica P. Hinson, Kiss. Hinson-like Nevada, casts images of the desert dust bowls : big echoing chords and picks which Zep's Jimmy Page would be proud of.

For Comfort You, it's just three of them : Oldham, Niblett and guitar, on a dazzlingly emotive love ballad, as Niblett drawls, " I wanna comfort youuuuuuuu." Tying up a solid album with plenty of variety and class, she hits the piano on the sparse and glorious Fishes And Honey. Ok, there's a lot of minimalism going on. It's still great stuff.

Elly Roberts