Scout Niblett - Kidnapped by Neptune

Genre rock Publisher Beggars / Too Pure Records External Links Official Website Too Pure Records

Reviewers rely on comparisons to get a point across to their readers, and I'm no different. In researching Scout Niblett, most everyone compares her to Cat Power / Chan Marshall, and the only similarities I can find is that they are both essentially one person bands. They want to attribute everything that Niblett does to the pretentious Marshall, but at the crux of the matter, they both create entirely different music. While one may want to kill themselves at the listen of anything Cat Power does in the most bloody of fashions, Niblett is enjoyable and intriguing, and out right mysterious in some of the lyrics.

Kidnapped by Neptune is Niblett's third full length album and joins a handful of EP's in her canon. The album is characterized by her frenetic and cryptic vocals, staccato drums that come and go, and either fragile or Pantera-like chord structures that are sure to entice even the most cynical fan.

Overall, Niblett is a singer-songwriter at heart, and it's hard to decipher what she is all about with her lyrics and virtually all black album art. "Hot to Death" features a roundabout lyrical mess that eventually gets drowned out by a marching snare drum midway through the song and pained yells. "Kidnapped by Neptune" has the oft-repeated "Where've you been" over a mesmerizing drum loop, and the similarly looped "I am the driver" on "Valvoline." Niblett is going for the record of conveyed emotions with the fewest number of words.

For the most part the tracks feature nimble beginning guitar techniques and then crescendo with either a drum attack or a dropped-D distortion group of chords that eventually wind things down. At first listen it's an interesting way to go about things and just another added attempt to convey the emotions that she's trying to get across. However, many of the songs feature the quiet to loud, or vice versa, structure and by the end of Kidnapped by Neptune it becomes tired and repetitive.

Recorded by master of raw Steve Albini, he does the smart thing and realizes the unique vocals of Niblett, allowing them to stand alone, sans overdubs. Her voice is reminiscent at times of Bjork and the aforementioned queen of pretension, but it stays on course and is allowed to breath under the emotional weight during the quieter parts. Niblett doesn't think every single word she utters is going to change the world, and that levity can be heard in such passages as "everyone needs someone to spell out their name in a song" ("Pompoms").

Kidnapped by Neptune is an interesting album. Not for the cryptic lyrics, but for the massive "Happiness is a Warm Gun" cut and paste quality of the tracks that intrigue one moment, and then grate the next. But you won't want to kill yourself at the end of the listen. Which is a bonus.