Number 6 of 2005 — Nerina Pallot: Fires

In August 2001, Nerina Pallot [4Play video bio] released her debut single Patience [video]. It was the video for this song that persuaded me to buy her album Dear Frustrated Superstar, which ended up being my favourite album of that year. And what a title. Patience charted at number 61. The album, followed two weeks later, charting at number 82. Nerina wasn’t happy with the way she was being treated as an artist and musician. She wrote about this online. Her record label, Polydor withdrew the album and dropped Nerina, minus contracted financial compensation.

Wilderness years ensued, during which Nerina carried on writing music, gigging and studying. Her music publisher Chrysalis Music stuck by her, providing her with money to record her second album. It wasn’t enough, leading to Nerina re-mortgaging her house to complete the job.

Fires was released in April 2005 on her own label. Named after a collection of Raymond Carver stories and poems, it was preceded by a download-only single Everybody’s Gone To War, also the first track on the album. In 2006 Nerina signed to 14th Floor, home of Damien Rice, and Fires was re-issued with more “spangly” versions of some songs and an adjusted track order. It’s now sold over 100,000 copies. Such is the fickle nature of the music industry that Polydor have found the money and inclination to re-release Dear Frustrated Superstar.

Anyhow, on with the review of Fires. But which version do I choose to review? I could be elitist and review the original version, or I could help promote the album by reviewing the reissued version. Let’s see.. it’s the reissued one, although I believe the track sequencing on the original version to be better.

Fires kicks off with Everybody’s Gone To War [video], opening with overly shiny drums and underpinned by too many guitars. It’s immediately clear what’s changed during the past four years. Nerina’s music was previously firmly entrenched in the singer/songwriter mould. Now her songs are more expansive and many have taken on a mid-Atlantic tinge. That’s probably a bad thing, as I shall illustrate later. Lyrically, however she has matured greatly, encompassing more pathos and wit. There’s no Watch Out Billie on this album either.

For example, Halfway Home, an anthem of sorts, leads off with the line “I’ve got a quarter in my pocket of an apple left to eat” later becoming “I’ve got a quarter in my pocket, I’m advancing to the booth”. In between “In the shadow of a thousand veiled Victorian goodbyes / Jewels of litter come to greet me, and it stings my eyes”.

Damascus [video], about the ending of a relationship which had long been in decline, is a highlight of the album. This live video for Damascus proves two things: that talented songwriters don’t need spangly arrangements or A-list musicians to help their music, which is ironic given who ended up playing on Fires (including Matt Chamberlain and almost omnipotent Jon Brion); and that a basic arrangement increases the emotional impact of the song.

Prior to the release of the album, Nerina’s MySpace page had a couple of exclusive songs on it. It still has them. One of these is Idaho. I loved it then, and I love it more now. Idaho was the song that marked the point when Nerina knew she’d make a second album. The lyrics appear to reflect this growing realisation, putting to an end her depression later documented in the poignant, reflective Mr King.

Learning To Breathe builds upon this before the introspective nature of the album turns to look forwards and outwards. Geek Love is a song which flirts with infidelity, being witty and sexy, opening with the lines “In the race to get out of this place / I am checking my face in the back of a spoon”.

And then there’s Sophia, a piano ballad about “falling in love with a person, and books, and needing to find the right words to express those intense feelings”. Oh my. Oh my. Again. It’s only on this song that the beauty in Nerina’s voice becomes blindingly obvious, especially on “Do you hurt but still feel alive, like never before? Oh, Sophia. Sophia.” (my emphasis). Sophia will be released as a radically reworked single in September 2006.

All Good People is a Sheryl Crow song straight out of Tuesday Night Music Club. Sorry. It’s nice and all that, and I do like the line “Why should we worry, when we can do anything?”, but the arrangement is pedestrian. Fortunately, the closing two tracks return to the quality of the rest of the album. Heart Attack is a furious exclamation of self-belief and Nickindia is a tearful look back at one’s life (and these are my tears). The latter points me towards Kristin Hersh’s Listerine.

Fires is the first album I’ve managed to review without needing to listen to it at the same time. That’s a measure of how good it is, and how memorable it is.

Better than Rocketboom.