Nina Nastasia & Jim White - You Follow Me (Fat Cat)
5/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Even though Nina Nastasia and Jim White have crafted songs together numerous times before, 'You Follow Me' does deserve to be billed as the work of both musicians rather than just Nina herself. On this LP, drums, acoustic guitar and voice are all that exist, and the drums are way more prominent than they ever have been before on any of her consistently excellent LPs. And she's proud of it - the pounding of opener 'I've Been Out Walking' might as well scream 'listen to my drummer!' at the top of its lungs, if it had any.
And if Nina wants someone to emphasise rhythm whilst she goes off on marvellous melodic tangents, I'm glad she's gone for as dangerous a player as the Dirty Three's Jim White, who, deliberately, plays very precisely out of time for a lot of the record. When not messing with your head in that way, he's laying rhythms under Nina's songs which I honestly doubt any one else would have come up with. He's the very best man for the job.
It's remarkable how high up in the mix he is, and it's as remarkable that despite all his showing off (and there is a lot of it, but he's earned the right to), it's still her melodies which will be the thing you take away from 'You Follow Me'. These can be odd melodies, disarming ones like 'I Write Down Lists', or really quite cute, charming ones about deer like 'Odd Said The Doe'.
'You Follow Me' is a funny little title for this most democratic of records. It's difficult to pin point who calls the shots. Perhaps nobody does, but in partnership, we follow them, that's for sure - I have for example never been more scared and engrossed by someone talking about sitting down for a glass of wine as I have been by 'The Day I Would Bury You', and it's a fear not generated solely by the lyrics, but mostly because on it Nina's way with a scary tune and Jim White's abilty to build insufferable tension purely by stroking a drum kit menacingly combine to produce the most fascinating results.
On 'Our Discussion', Whitey boy's not in time whatsoever, and his work becomes all about texture rather than beat. The melody is rather simple, the percussion bafflingly complex. It's a real highlight. It's sister piece is 'How Will You Love Me', where the beat tones down its complexity so that the melody can up it by just the same degree. They work off each other, these two. Elsewhere, 'In The Evening' could have fit most comfortably out of all the tracks here on her previous masterpiece 'On Leaving', perhaps because it's the track where Nina stretches herself vocally most apparently as she did on her last record, or perhaps it's because it mentions the words "on leaving", making us think it might have been an errant, misplaced title track. Either way, you could very nearly class it as euphoric.
They climax and border on anthemic status with 'Late At Night' - if you want to convince a newcomer that Nastasia is a genius, this is the one to play them. Three minutes in to its stunning process, the drumming goes at half the speed yet double the volume it has for the rest of the song, nay album, and the result is extraordinary. It's basically a two chord song, but I've only noticed that after months of considering it my favourite song on the record, and one of the best tunes I've heard this year. No matter. It retains that status despite its simplicity.
There's still Nastasia's defining mystery and distance to it. You're no closer to figuring out Nina as a person or a songwriter by listening to these songs. But for now, enjoy this new pairing, enjoy the way they sound like they're enjoying each other, and hum these melodies as you go about your daily business. You can figure out what the songs are about later. Get lost in the melody, get caught up in the complexity of it all, it's your call. And as you may have noticed, I love being able to make that choice with a record.
Stream 'Odd Said The Doe' from 'You Follow Me' HERE.
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