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For those who haven’t heard her voice before, Nina Nastasia’s new LP Mine the Bird might be an unsettling and revelatory experience, like reading a book that you’ve only seen film adaptations of. Such is to say that Nastasia’s work feels like ‘the real thing’ – something often but only superficially imitated. She is, to quote Interview Magazine, “the rare artist who creates a new form from which others will copy.”
There’s little question why John Peel called Dogs, Nastasia’s 2000 debut, “astonishing.” Dogs felt like a legendary and seminal record disguised as a budget indie release, with each copy meticulously packaged by Nastasia herself in her New York apartment. Nastasia became a cause celebre in the UK and in the United States, though no more than 1,500 copies of the record were printed. “Astonishing” would be the only way a record so apparently contradictory and surprising could have been described. The limited nature of the release made Dogs a mythic object, and spawned a network of fans and collectors seeking copies. Nine years and four LPs later, Nastasia’s body of work has earned her the reverence of critics and the admiration of countless converts who have, like Peel, each had their moment of astonishment.
Although her most recent effort, Mine the Bird, will receive a proper release on Fat Cat Records, her work continues to startle and amaze newcomers and hardcore fans alike. The record finds Nastasia exploring new textures, enlisting the help of Los Angeles arranger Paul Bryan and long-time companian Kennan Gudjonsson to arrange her compositions for woodwind and string quartets. Mine the Bird also features Nastasia’s first tango, the lushly orchestrated “This Familiar Way.”
Mine the Bird marks the beginning of a new and distinct phase of Nastasia’s creative output, but the signposts of Nastasia’s sensibility present: recordings both lush and intimate, songcraft impeccable but not fussy, lyrics intelligent and provocative but not overly enamored with their own cleverness. Nastasia’s voice will still, to quote Mojo Magazine, “suck the air out of the room.”
