Albums of The Year # 60 Nadia Reid - Out Of My Province

  From March. Just after Lockdown:

There were at least three fine albums released this Friday by greatly distinctive artists working in different fields. I've already posted about Cornershop England is a Garden on here and will do about U.S.Girls Heavy Light, but in the meantime here are my thoughts on Nadia Reid's latest Out of my Province.

New Zealander Reid is probably the most easily categorisable of the three, working in the Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter tradition most obviously that of Joni Mitchell. But she brings her own particular gifts and qualities to the table and things flower wonderfully over the course of this record.

Reid's approach is fairly conventional and unadorned though this doesn't make her songs any less affecting, in fact exactly the opposite. There's actually something quite touching apart an artist who is quite unafraid to offer up her emotions so nakedly and bravely. There's also much more going on than immediately meets the eye. She never makes the obvious rhyme and the emotions at play here tunnel surreptitiously deep.

Reid doesn't really indulge in the eccentric self-conscious quirkiness of her friend and compatriot Aldous Harding or those that Australian Courtney Barnett is also prone to. She prefers to play it straight and this is the record's essential strength. It is what it is. Reid is a master of her craft and Out of my Province finds plenty of ways of telling basic but fundamental truths to a multitude of listeners who will surely appreciate its warmth and veritude. 

There are ten songs on here and most of them focus on the vagaries of the human heart. The arrangements here are tasteful and tradition bound. There's nothing on here that is likely to surprise but much that may move you.