Scout Niblett: It's Up to Emma
The kiss on the cover hides the pain of deceit, but on the record, singer-songwriter Scout Niblett wears her wounded heart firmly on her sleeve.
CD | Scout Niblett ●●●
It’s Up to Emma indie rock (Drag City/V2)
“I think I’m gonna buy me a gun / A nice little silver one,” is how Emma Louise “Scout” Niblett half-threateningly and pseudo-cutely kicks off her sixth studio album. Her delivery has an alienating and disorienting effect, especially when combined with the video, in which she is dressed as Snow White. As though she’s indicating how interchangeable fiction and reality have become now. But more than anything, the protagonist in “Gun” has been cheated on, and she wants her exes and competitor(s) to feel it. If the album’s title is to be believed, Niblett herself might well be that protagonist. In any case, the sparing tonal range is a pretty good metaphor for the way she exposes herself. With an angry guitar and vocals, which refer to the young PJ Harvey and occasionally also to Cat Power, she attacks the world. But ultimately, she only really tames inner demons after being cheated on once too often. The fact that she wants to get something off her chest is highlighted formally by the fact that she addresses her former partners directly. But as a listener, her unburdening is sometimes rather surprising – “Seven long years, and I’m still getting wet / At the thought that we might just get / To run around again,” she sings in “Second Chance Dreams”. Not much is left to the imagination, but it certainly sounds authentic, and the cover of TLC’s “No Scrubs” – stripped of its R&B beat – actually brought a sigh of relief and a smile to our face.
6/6, 19.30, €13/16, Botanique
It’s Up to Emma indie rock (Drag City/V2)
“I think I’m gonna buy me a gun / A nice little silver one,” is how Emma Louise “Scout” Niblett half-threateningly and pseudo-cutely kicks off her sixth studio album. Her delivery has an alienating and disorienting effect, especially when combined with the video, in which she is dressed as Snow White. As though she’s indicating how interchangeable fiction and reality have become now. But more than anything, the protagonist in “Gun” has been cheated on, and she wants her exes and competitor(s) to feel it. If the album’s title is to be believed, Niblett herself might well be that protagonist. In any case, the sparing tonal range is a pretty good metaphor for the way she exposes herself. With an angry guitar and vocals, which refer to the young PJ Harvey and occasionally also to Cat Power, she attacks the world. But ultimately, she only really tames inner demons after being cheated on once too often. The fact that she wants to get something off her chest is highlighted formally by the fact that she addresses her former partners directly. But as a listener, her unburdening is sometimes rather surprising – “Seven long years, and I’m still getting wet / At the thought that we might just get / To run around again,” she sings in “Second Chance Dreams”. Not much is left to the imagination, but it certainly sounds authentic, and the cover of TLC’s “No Scrubs” – stripped of its R&B beat – actually brought a sigh of relief and a smile to our face.
6/6, 19.30, €13/16, Botanique
Read more about: Muziek
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