Try as I have over the past five years or so, Scout Niblett and my tastes just haven’t clicked. There’s something so very off about the girl’s voice; it crawls in, down my throat, and nestles like an alien embryo, all sticky and menacing. It’s not painful – not yet – but just really annoying. And she looks a bit like Billy Corgan, sometimes. Which is obviously awful.
Here Scout couples up with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. When he leads ‘Kiss’ is something of a melancholy delight, poignancy absolute; but when he’s overpowered by that screech, well. Turn off, soon as. Ouch.
B-side ‘Centaurs ‘R’ Us’ is more of a naked proposition, more in tune with Scout’s Kidnapped By Neptune long-player than her most recent This Fool Can Die Now collection. The stripped accompaniment allows that voice the room to truly stretch, and it’s here that the tickle of discomfort turns fully fledged agony.
Sorry Scout: wrong ears. Go chummy up to Plan B some more and come back here when you’ve got some meat on these brittle and bare bones.
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5Rupert the Bare Nang's Score