Reviews
Nerina Pallot
Fires
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Add to del.ico.us.Review Date: 2006-08-28
What would you do if your label sacked you following your first album’s lack of success? What would you do if you later signed to another label (14th Floor), and then your second album failed to garner sales? Give up, right? Well, not if you have the conviction of Nerina Pallot. Although she first signed a record deal in 2000, it has taken until 2006 for anyone to know her name. With the UK chart success of single ‘Everybody’s Gone To War’, 14th Floor felt the need to reissue (with no extra tracks), her 2005 album Fires. And, whoever made decision deserves a raise. Fires announces Pallot as the new Tori Amos.
The album opens with the song people now know as the one with the video food fight in the supermarket, or ‘Everybody’s Gone to War’, as it’s known to the non-MTV generation. The single deserved the sales which put it firmly in the UK Top 10. Although not a number one, surely one of the best successful singles of the year. It’s a pop number, immediately accessible, and the kind of song you’ll find yourself singing at various intervals during the working day.
The Tori Amos comparison comes from songs like ‘Halfway Home’ and ‘Idaho’: piano-driven balladry at its finest. Pallot may be British and carry a UK passport, but her voice is that of the faux-American. You know, the kind of accent non-US residents sing in, thinking that it’s the in-thing to do. Must be the influence of Beverley Hills 90210 or other modern hip shows like that. Pallot does it well though, and doesn’t really sound like she’s playing the part of Brenda (and don’t get me started on Tori Spelling).
The album contains slower songs like ‘Damascus’ which contrasts well with the more radio-friendly adult rock of the rest of the album. Although they do provide a contrast, you feel that they are missing the spark that made ‘Everybody’s Gone to War’ such a smash. The lyrics of ‘Damascus’ are straight out of a teenager’s diary “It’s over / Everything is wrong / Everything is Gone / Now I know [that] everything is nothing.” Some of these slower songs also constitute to the filler-quotient which seems to be part of so many albums these days. ‘Mr King’ fails to live up to its title, and should have been renamed ‘Mr [expletive deleted]’. And as for the horrendous, ‘Nickindia’, I’ll just refuse to talk about it.
In places the album sounds overproduced, and could have done with a more experienced producer. ‘All Good People’ best shows this. While the song itself, when stripped down, contains all the proper nuts and bolts of a great song – some really shiny, top-of-the-range nuts and bolts – it just has an overall sheen which stinks of studio tinkering. It’s like if you got an otherwise decent car on Pimp My Ride and added some 20-inch rims and seventeen television screens (because you can never have enough television screens!)
‘Idaho’, the most Amos of the songs, is undoubtedly the best song on the album. (Don’t agree? Take it up with my solicitors.) It’s got a great bridge, understated strings, and a memorable chorus. It’s also got a breakdown section which is reminiscent of early Kate Bush. And that’s not a comparison I’d make on a whim.
‘Geek Love’, on the other hand, is unashamedly a Sarah McLachlan rip-off. Listen to ‘Building a Mystery’, and then this, and tell me different. You can’t. For all her influences, Pallot has a hard time carving out her own identity in her songs. From the fake American accent to the Tori Amos B-Sides, the album screams “forgotten”. Luckily, there are one or two standout tracks which help her overcome this banality.
Tracks to Download: Idaho, Everybody’s Gone to War, Learning to Breathe
Score: 5.7
Originally I thought this was a much better album. But after repeated listens, you feel that listening to an actual Tori Amos album would be more worthwhile.
- Ronan Hunt-Murphy