Scout Niblett
This Fool Can Die Now

I stumbled upon Scout Niblett by chance, on a cold English evening, in a boat transformed into a live music venue, and I was so struck that, at the end of the concert, I rushed to the stall to buy her CD: "This Fool Can Die Now", the fourth and latest work of the English singer-songwriter, recorded by Steve Albini.

Scout Niblett is essential, her songs are voice, guitar, and sometimes drums; her voice can get inside you and unsettle you: it's haunting, but also angry, much like her guitar, clean and crystalline, but ready for distortion and the drum's entrance in the more explosive parts.

In the first track "Do You Want To Be Buried With My People" you immediately hear the dark atmospheres of the album drawn by Scout Niblett's guitar and the contrasting male voice, though the song, in its continuation, presents more relaxed tones compared to the introduction. "Kiss", the second track, brings out the power of sweetness capable of killing, "a kiss could have killed me," said in Scout Niblett's way, really conveys the idea. "Moon Lake" seems like an experiment where the guitar takes a momentary pause and Scout Niblett's voice is accompanied solely by the drums. "Let Thyne Heart Be Warmed" and "Nevada" are perhaps the most beautiful tracks of the album: two songs in crescendo, a crescendo that starts from the bare sound of the guitar and voice, to distort with the entrance of a pounding drum.

As the listening progresses, there are also other opportunities to relax and melt to Scout Niblett's voice and her arpeggios, like "Baby Emma", "Comfort You" (almost to calm the beautiful and nervous "Hide And Seek"), or "Dinosaur Egg", the latter with a repetitive and insistent melody that at the end seems to expand, as if to take a little rest.

Searching for information around the web, I found an interview where Scout Niblett declares to be heavily influenced by the sounds of the so-called "grunge" period: there is certainly something in her music that takes you back to those times, and the first time I heard her, I vaguely perceived something of Sonic Youth.

"This Fool Can Die Now" is a very beautiful, powerful, essential album; Scout Niblett's voice is penetrating, just let it flow inside, embarking on a journey, at the end of which, it's worth considering, one might come out overwhelmed.