Nadine Shah : "Filthy Underneath"

 

This marks the 4th album we have reviewed by Nadine Shah. Her first is our favorite so far. She has progressed past the point of being post-punk. There is a stark mood that still lingers around the smoother grooves she continues to polish.  On the lead single "Topless Mother" her voice feels like it is taking the role a horn section would normally occupy in the arrangement. It is not the hook fest you might imagine a single to be. "Food For Fuel' feels more interesting with its snake-charming bass line. Though the first three songs are all very effective at what they do, they just do three very different things. 

Shah does have a great voice, but her main strength as a singer is knowing where to put her voice that best serves the song which is a skill she continues to sharpen on songs like "You Drive, I Shoot". The beat is minimalist, but she makes the most of it. However, this skill alone is not enough when the instrumentation is not aiding her with an attempt to groove, which can be heard in "Keeping Score" . Sure it is better than most of what you hear on the radio these days, Taylor Swift excluded, but we have heard better from her, and that is the bar we are measuring this album by. 

"Sad LadsAnonymous" is spoken word over a bass groove, that feels like a Tricky b-side. Lyrically there is more attention to detail in the bitting commentaries she has built this album around. This is much less of a rock record than what we have heard from her in the past, as is more beat-reliant in a manner that puts this closer to pop music, just without the commercialized aspirations. She allows the moods to drone and speculate. "French Exit" has a slightly darker touch to it, that reminds me as a whole this album has not been all that darker. The mood is more of a skeptical hope. It works off a tension that never climaxes. Still her voice sounds great and overall everything typically works certainly better than most of the pop music on the radio, I will give it a 9, which puts it alongside her other albums. 

pst74