Nadia Reid – Out Of My Province
Spacebomb – 6 March 2020
Nadia Reid’s Out Of My Province is everything she didn’t want her third album to be. Instead of a stripped back disc of just guitars and voices, this is completely different, a deeply layered, full-scale production by Trey Pollard and Matthew E. White with horns, synths, strings, electric guitars, literally everything she thought she didn’t want. After seeing Reid at Green Man in 2017, Spacebomb owner Ben Baldwin began the dance that eventually led Reid to record in Richmond Virginia, instead of Christchurch, New Zealand.
The drums that open All Of My Love sound massive against Reid’s voice. Layers of keyboard and strings get added to the mix, yet instead of feeling overloaded there still seems to be vast amounts of room. As she sings, “I feel that you are changing, I cannot decipher exactly what that means,” one realises uncertainty is one of the keys to this recording. In life, things become clearer over time, but at the moment, clarity isn’t something Reid can depend upon.
The guitar on High & Lonely has a distant feel to it as Nadia sings the first verse, yet as drums and bass enter, the song takes on a different tone. A keyboard phrase out of the Booker T songbook enters, followed by horns and suddenly, what has sounded mournful as Reid asks the question, “Oh and if I die tomorrow would you come hold me?”, takes on a totally different tone. There is a sense of magic in the music that moves the performances to a different level.
Even though the songs have been dressed up, the reality of Reid’s lyrics suggests that while a stripped-down version of this album would sound very different, the truths would still make this an album to reckon with. How one looks at life depends on one’s vantage point. Other Side Of The Wheel makes this very clear. “You are on the other side now. You go to your job. Well, you think that you are free. We are both looking at the same blue sky. How does it feel on the other side of the wheel?”
There is also a mystery to Nadia Reid; things are unclear even to her. I Don’t Want To Take Anything From You ends with her questioning her actions and herself. “Why don’t you look up once in a while? Oh, the sky is bright. The time is here. Why don’t you call him just to say hello? Oh, the light was right, we all thought so.”
Actions taken and actions untaken, those are questions each of us has, yet Nadia Reid has the temperament to say the things that often go unspoken, the things that bother us. On Out Of My Province, she has created an album of musical maturity and emotional depth. There can be no greater compliment.
Live Dates
SXSW and April European Tour Dates *with Aoife Nessa Frances as support
13-21.03.2020 Austin, TX (US), SXSW
10.4.2020 Brighton (UK) The Hope & Ruin*
11.4.2020 Bristol (UK) The Louisiana*
13.4.2020 Glasgow (UK) The Old Hairdressers*
14.4.2020 Manchester (UK) Band on The Wall*
15.4.2020 Leeds (UK) Brudenell Social Club*
16.4.2020 London (UK) Oslo*
18.4.2020 Rotterdam (NL) Motel Mozaique Festival
20.4.2020 Hamburg (DE) Aalhaus
21.4.2020 Berlin (DE) Roter Salon
22.4.2020 Jena (DE) Trafo
24.4.2020 Vienna (AT) Haus der Musik
26.4.2020 Munich (DE) Glockenbachwerkstatt
27.4.2020 Zürich (CH) El Lokal
28.4.2020 Bern (CH) ISC Club
30.4.2020 Paris (FR), Le Pop-Up du Label