Imagine if Eleanor Friedberger and her brother Matthew of theFiery Furnaces were robbed of their entire collection of electronicmusical gadgets and gizmos. Stripped down, that leaves the style ofconversational melody and adorable quirk Scout Niblett employs to beginher live rendition of “Let Thine Heart Be Warmed” — which is found onthe Live at the Middle East EP — before she shatters the frailfoundation of finger-picked guitar with a raw wail and thundering drumsin a bulldozer of a chorus.
The influx of distortion thatsignals the song’s recurring apex is an enormous static blanket butunable to contain Niblett’s howl, leaving her sounding like Liz Phairand PJ Harvey when they could still get pissed off. It’s as if thedirty guitar abuse and tortured vocal fits of the early ’90s neverleft, and with famed audio engineer Steve Albini (Nirvana, The Pixies)manning the boards for the album, the era lives on through Niblett’sjumps from minimalist to massive. When she truly unleashes and cuttingscreeches tail each “Yeah!” your heart isn’t warmed so much as burningup. 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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