Imagine if Eleanor Friedberger and her brother Matthew of the Fiery Furnaces were robbed of their entire collection of electronic musical gadgets and gizmos. Stripped down, that leaves the style of conversational melody and adorable quirk Scout Niblett employs to begin her live rendition of "Let Thine Heart Be Warmed" -- which is found on the Live at the Middle East EP -- before she shatters the frail foundation of finger-picked guitar with a raw wail and thundering drums in a bulldozer of a chorus.
The influx of distortion that signals the song's recurring apex is an enormous static blanket but unable to contain Niblett's howl, leaving her sounding like Liz Phair and PJ Harvey when they could still get pissed off. It's as if the dirty guitar abuse and tortured vocal fits of the early '90s never left, and with famed audio engineer Steve Albini (Nirvana, The Pixies) manning the boards for the album, the era lives on through Niblett's jumps from minimalist to massive. When she truly unleashes and cutting screeches tail each "Yeah!" your heart isn't warmed so much as burning up. Niblett's fourth LP This Fool Can Die Now, which includes a stunning studio version of "Let Thine Heart Be Warmed," drops Oct. 9 via Too Pure.
Now Hear This
Scout Niblett - "Let Thine Heart Be Warmed" DOWNLOAD MP3
On the Web:
Scout Niblett at MySpace
scoutniblett.com
Talk: Does Scout Niblett 'warm' your 'heart'?
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