Back with her sixth album, The Calcination of Scout Niblett, the ever tormented talent that is Scout Niblett has returned another batch of bluesy minimalist rock and roll songs that will haunt your soul if not your brain.
Picking up right where she left off on her 2007 effort, This Fool Can Die Now,Scout plucks and grinds her way slowly through each of the songs on The Calcination of Scout Niblett as if they were her last songs ever. Sounding like a female version of Magnolia Electric Company with the occasional distortion pedal turned to overdrive, Scout has taken a barely there approach to writing songs again and the effects are quite moving. Either very fragile or almost angry, Scout covers her bases all to well sounding like a disembodied spirit wherever her songs decide to take her. It's minimal stuff that could creep out the Ghost Hunters team...and that's a compliment.
Scout Niblett is a tender soul and she's at her most fragile when she uses quiet hushed vocals and thinly plucked guitars to create quite a fetching and hesitant atmosphere. It's this almost inauspicious feeling that makes the record such an alluring listen but when she turns on the distortion you can almost sense the therapy going on. From the imploring minimalism of "Ripe With Life" to the closing notes of the non-Nike endorsing "Just Do It," The Calcination of Scout Niblett is barely there but yearns to be heard and will stalk you until it is.
The Calcination of Scout Niblett is an emotional record that is turbulent without making much noise at all; it's music for an empty room, it's music for an old soul, and it's music to make your heart pine for something more and that's what makes it a scary but enjoyable listen.
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