Nina Nastasia
Issue #29
On Leaving (FatCat)
By Jeremy Ohmes
Published: September 1st, 2006 | 12:00am
With a voice as cool as a September night under the stars, Nina Nastasia is a sublime, gentle force in the swollen domain of singer-songwriters. For more than four years and over the course of three albums, she has fine-tuned her craft and created a pensive sound that is both spectral and tangible, like the goosebumps it induces. On her fourth, On Leaving, Nastasia continues to evolve, aided by her veteran band, including the Dirty Three’s Jim White, and the engineering prowess of her biggest fan, Steve Albini.
Albini’s sparse production and less-is-more technique is the perfect foundation for Nastasia’s hauntingly hypnotic melodies, giving the record a sequestered, moonlit, the-road-not-taken feel. This mood is set right from the start on “Jim’s Room,” which simply features Nastasia and her lilting guitar sporadically pierced by the subtle dissonance of whimpering cellos and violas. On “Settling Song,” brushed drums and a shyly prompted piano lift the curtain on a story about lost love and disheveled promises.
Many of Nastasia’s protagonists seem to tiptoe in limbo between home and some far away longing. On “Why Don’t You Stay Home,” Nastasia croons, “It’s high time to make a move / Things might not get better / There I said it / The last time you were feeling like this / You left with a light coat and you froze to death.” It’s this universal questioning and soul-searching that gives On Leaving a take-for-granted grace and a timeless magnetism, like the understanding of a good friend.
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