Nina Nastasia - On Leaving (Fat Cat)
5/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Nina Nastasia recently told Rockfeedback's Michael Lewin (whose superb interview you should really check out) that she's amazed that people seem to deduce so much about her personality from her songs, and whilst listening to 'On Leaving', this has puzzled me. I think there are hints as to what she might be like all over the record, but only because I refuse to believe than an artist can make a work with this much care and attention to detail and somehow still not put anything by way of hints as to what she's like in it, even unintentionally.
Even though I might not learn anything about Nina Nastasia personally from these songs, perhaps I will learn about what she thinks about a few things, or, if she's hiding behind characters, what the people she creates in her mind think about things. Maybe I can deduce something about her from the fiction she writes. Perhaps she's like Dylan in that long after she's gone people will still pore over these lyrics, reading whatever they like in to them and jumping at conclusions without ever finding out the truth about Nina Nastasia from anything to do with her music.
But why do I even want to know about her? Why, when I could just accept these songs on face value and have one of the best listening experiences of my whole life? The way I've felt most appropriate to think about 'On Leaving' is as a relatively confused album that flirts with the idea of running away in a similar manner to how a child would. It hints of escapism to me, but it's never made entirely clear. 'Jim's Room' starts things off and has a quite homely feel to it, even though it's desperately sad. She sings the line "I never saw you in your clothes" to a fellow, and they're words which from another mouth could be sordid, yet it's sung with such mournful regret. It all happens as discordant strings jump around trying to drown out a simple, picked guitar melody without ever managing to beat it for sheer splendour.
After that most subtle of melodies, 'Brad Haunts A Party' kicks in a little too brashly for my liking, drums and pianos now finding their (eventually) welcome way in to the mix for the sake of a little flourish. But again, the tone is a mournful one - "we don't get around like we used to", you see. Sniff. It ends abruptly, leaving the song hanging in the air somewhat uncomfortably for the listener. Time to move on, thinks Nina.
And she does, with 'Our Day Trip', the easiest song to grasp conceptually on the whole record as it deals so blatantly with themes of escapism, milling over a place where you and Nina can go for the day. "We can lose our clothes and have a swim", she offers. It's the first thing on the record so far that isn't at all sad. It's all been lovely, and this is too, but this isn't tinged with any regret or feelings of inadequacy in age. The only sadness to it is mine, and that's only because I've got it very clear in my mind that I'll probably never get to go on such a day trip with Nina (I'd probably be a nervous wreck if I did ever the opportunity). Her gentle strumming is stabbed with piano notes in a way that suggests distress to come, though. Hold on tight.
For good Lord does it get dark. 'Counting Up Your Bones' is the most baffling, unnerving, incredible song here - one that makes me utterly uncomfortable but in a way that I'll want to revisit very, very often. For everyone who's heard it, they'll agree - nothing else is going on whilst this song is hitting your ears. You'll concentrate on it and only it. The melody is bizarre, the concept oblique and the pace goes all over the place. We've mentioned things being 'Nastasian' before, and this is a perfect example. They'll compare stuff to this in a few years time. Me, I'm just glad that situations as dark as the one it hints at don't exist currently in my head. I'm delighted that Nina's created them for me as a place to visit, should I ever need to.
Compared to that, a funeral march would seem jaunty, but 'Dumb I Am' is a pop song, a really jolly, beautiful pop song! Except... (did you see that coming?), well, Albini's put these enormous drums behind it, just like he does with Low when they're being pretty - he turns everything beautiful into something with menace. He can't help it. Actually, come to think of it, I'm pretty sure there's some menace behind the song, and it'd remain even if Steve had nothing to do with it. Just the way she hits the minor chords is so sodding venomous.
'Why Don't You Stay Home?' reverses the theme of escapism set in 'Our Day Trip', and that's not just me looking at the titles and deducing that, oooh, they've all hint towards going somewhere else. Since '...Day Trip', there seems to be a journeying feeling to 'On Leaving'. What's probably best about 'Why Don't You Stay Home?' is the way the piano is used so sparingly, a part that would require little talent to play but yet has devastating effect. Mmm, genius. Maybe they should teach primary school children how to play this part in their first piano lessons at school - it's simple enough for them to grasp, and they'd go through their musical life really knowing what it is to play the instrument.
Now, who's 'Lee', and why does he get his own song? This is her effect - I don't just want to know about her, but every little detail about who she's singing about too. I want there to be a song called 'Tom'. And I want there to be a song named after you, dear reader, so that I can get to know you through it. I just want to know what clever people are thinking. Surely we all grow that way? She'd be doing us a service if she'd tell us a little more about herself.
'Settling Song' I can't find too much to love in for the first minute and nineteen, before that lovely chorus. I love that she's not afraid of choruses and huge melodies. Even though the music seems so sparse and fragile, the structure of the songs is so sturdy that it can support whatever Nina wants to do with it. "I know that you'll marry someday" is sung like an old folk line, passed down throughout the ages. She's a witch with melodies, she really is.
It ends with 'If We Go To The West' - and it's travelling that's brough to mind again, although with a more contemplative and restrained feel than something like 'Our Day Trip' and it's gay abandon. It's more like a begrudging admittance that it's time to leave whatever state or place you're in, rather than flitting out of desperation or boredom. I saw a really pretty girl once, but this is prettier. It's also the best point to leave the album.
Now, apart from that I want to own everything she's ever written, I know nothing more about Nina Nastasia. Not one bit. But the one thing that I did learn will become incredibly important to me, of that much I'm sure.
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