Let’s get a couple of things clear from the start. Nina Nastasia is a fantastic singer, her voice soaring effortlessly alongside whichever instrument she chooses to accompany her (even if it is the Tuvan throat-singing group Huun-Huur-Tu, as heard on the sessions she recorded for John Peel). Equally, Jim White is a great drummer. Having been part of Aussie instrumental band Dirty Three, alongside sometime Bad Seed Warren Ellis, he has both the talent and the pedigree. So far, so simple.
So why is it that the two of them fail to gel properly on this collaborative project? It can’t be the production qualities, for Steve Albini has worked with Nastasia consistently over the years and has an impressive back catalogue of his own. Ultimately it seems that White and Nastasia are fundamentally unsuited to each other, at least for the kind of acoustic ballad showcased here. ‘I’ve Been Out Walking’ starts the album nicely, the kind of heartrending soul-searcher that Nastasia’s voice was meant for, but then halfway through ‘I Write Down Lists’ White seems to get bored and starts drumming to a different beat. This becomes something of a pattern throughout the album, most of the tracks starting well then degenerating as he gets all artsy and, y’know, creative.
For a few of the songs, such as ‘Late Night’, this almost works, but others are destroyed by two great artists pulling in different directions. If unusual, out-of-time drumbeats and traditional folksy singer-songwriters both happen to be your thing then this is probably your idea of heaven, but otherwise it’ll turn out to be frustrating and, at times, almost unlistenable. Shame.