Customer Reviews

Dogs

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

At long last, we get Nina's first album re-released! And what a solid debut it is! I was very interested to see how the style Nastasia has evolved through on her 2nd and 3rd albums began, and Dogs rewards with an earlier step in Nina's musical journey. On Dogs, the songs are generally upbeat with Nina singing in the upper register with more of that country twang than she has been known to use as of late (Run to Ruin). Though the music sounds happier at first impression, her lyrical motif of broken dreams, failed relationships and hopeful longing for love is present. The arrangements are less centered on dark moods and the timbre of musical saw (though it IS played) and various percussion do-dads (as it became starting with The Blackened Air), and more electric guitar is used, which is A-OK with me. Beyond comparative issues, the bottom line is this: Dogs features thoughtfully-crafted songs (sometimes short) with somewhat dark lyrics, sung by a beautiful female voice and backed by some interesting instruments. The music is folk-rocky with a hint of country (but not too much, thank heaven). I am, as always, impressed with the songwriting, and appreciate the different style of music from the 2nd and 3rd albums. Can't wait for more!

I loved BLACKENED AIR so much that after wearing it out I purchased DOGS. Of course both have the wisdom of Steve Albini whirrled in. I am drawn to Nina Nastasia by the simplicity, the front porch elements that seem to slink around behind the barn where the real action goes down. Short well done songs that puntuate the worlds between dark folk and a film score for innocence lost.

I found Nina Nastasia had 2 songs on NPR..."The Long Walk" and "Stormy Weather". Skeptically listening to her music I was rather unused to it. My creature comforts are a little less kind and more punk.

But hearing Nina and her fellow bandmates, her haunting lyrics and the lowkey music following her dark smokey voice put you at ease. This music should be used in a combo of coffee and chocolate when you just want to feed your aching head & heart.

In "The Long Walk" she seems almost coo "You're covered with sweat, we're hardly there yet, don't be ashamed of yourself". Her words of comfort "just take it slow, its only me" seem so personal. You should be tearfully half done with the chocolate by now. Yet songs like "Stormy Weather" without sacrificing any intimacy, seem to subtly exude the power of a film score. I make no comparisons, but this band makes me think of Cowboy Junkies and Nick Drake. Acoustic guitars work well with other string instruments and minimal percussion. I welcome this alternative to the overly produced music heard all too often.

Do not blame me if you quickly develop a relationship with this CD. Love at your own risk.

this is a lovely album, melancholy, subtle and intelligent. it really casts a spell. nina nastasia's voice is sweet but never cloying and her wry, insinuating lyrics give her pretty melodies a compelling grittiness. there's no posturing here, though; every song is informed by a real emotional maturity and depth. nastasia reminds me a little of kirstin hersch or aimee mann. highly recommended

Melodic and haunting, but disciplined, structured and spare at the same time. Lyrics are beautiful, simple and unpretentious -- how many singer/songwriters can say that? Really beautiful songs.

This is the first album I have heard in quite sometime that stuck with me so fast. Her simplistic yet powerful sound takes the female singer/songwriter genre to whole new level. Her storytelling techniques are enough to get to the heart of any body who takes the time to listen. She has a beautiful and almost haunting voice, and a downbeat, slow folky guitar sound that i enjoy even though it is simplistic. It takes alot for something to be simplistic yet terribly powerful. All in all, one of my favorite female vocalists.

Why this album isn't considered an all-time classic already is hard to understand. Not since Joni Mitchell's Blue have I heard such consistently intelligent and elegant songwriting as is in Dogs. Nina Nastasia's style is unique, but still feels familiar. Her voice is beautiful, absolutley pure. Her words can be haunting, heartbreaking, even funny, and never cliche. So many cliches in music these days! How Norah Jones can be heralded such, win six Grammys, while a genius like Nina Nastasia lurks in the shadows, making brilliant record after brilliant record... it boggles my mind. If you want songs that make you listen, make you think, make you feel something genuine, by this album.

As with so many of my best-loved artists, I first came across the work of Nina Nastasia listening to John Peel. Only 1,500 copies of the blink-and-you'll-miss-it debut album "Dogs" were pressed by the tiny Socialist label (hence the wry remark, "Thank you, Comrades" in the booklet).

Fortunately, Steve Albini, who recorded the album in October 1999 at his Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago, sent a copy to the nation's favourite deejay, and with his usual keen ear for the original, the inspiring and the raw, he began featuring it heavily on his Radio One show, describing it as "astonishing", although by the time he played it on air, it had already become out of print. She went on to become a regular contributor to the programme, in session, on record, in concert and in performance at Peel Acres, and in 2004 "Dogs", by now with its own cult following, was re-released by Touch And Go.

Judging from the record, Nina clearly has bad days and worse days, and tends to sing about characters who are less fortunate. It is music like this that makes for the most satisfying listen, and Nina is its mistress.

Although a native of Hollywood CA, she spent the nineties in downtown New York, honing her music with partner and musical organizer Kennan Gudjonsson in their Chelsea home. As a result, the record is a distillation of a decade of composing and performing and contains a number of concise, finely-tuned songs that have remained in her concert repertoire, with sparse, eerie arrangements, including A Dog's Life, Stormy Weather (not the standard), Too Much In Between, All Your Life and Jimmy's Rose Tattoo.

Of the record, Steve Albini said in Mojo, 'Nina Nastasia's "Dogs" is a record so simultaneously unassuming and grandiose that I can't really describe it, except in terms that would make it (and me) sound silly. Of the couple thousand records I've been involved with, this is one of my favourites, and one that I'm proud to be associated with', and John Peel described the songs as 'very direct without being posy or too clever. There's an attractive air of melancholy without self-pity.'

Nina's perfectly-pitched vocals and acoustic guitar are tautly accompanied by cello and violin, an occasional electric guitar, some well-judged musical saw, accordion, piano, acoustic and electric basses and the vital underpinnings of some extremely subtle drum work, faithfully conveyed by Steve Albini's meticulous engineering. It was unlike any record before it and has set the mold for her future work to date. It is good to have it back in catalogue.

The world seems topheavy with 'singer-songwriters' -most of whom have
little to say. Yet someone at some record company thinks that the one good
song they've managed to squeeze out is just so great. Then we have, thankfully,
artists like Nina Nastasia who are the real thing- someone in another review
of her music compared her work to Nick Drake and other lovely ghosts who
seem to grace the planet for too short a time. I've come to feel that every
piece that Nina gets out is one more on our side. Artists with a true "feel'
are few and far between- even some of our current best can only do it from
time to time- the Will Oldhams, the Joseph Arthurs- certain artists give you
a feeling, take you to a certain place, and that is what i get from Nina Nastasia's
work- the slightly off, yet ever-so-right, shall we say 'haunted'? quality is
something in short supply. drink it in.
stephen spera

superb listening experience. sort of gothic jazz/blues.

mostly low key - awesome to listen to sipping bourbon/beer on your front porch or soaking in a tub with candles galore. strange discordance pops up here and there to keep things interestingly edgy. very, very cool.

if you like nina, and how could you not if you appreciate excellent female singing/songwriting, do yourself a favor and check out rosie thomas' "when we were small"