Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

Please join the conversation over on our new forums »

If you really want to read this, try using The Internet Archive.

Black Nielson

Still Life Hear Me

Label: Truck Records Release Date: 29/10/2001

1115
iforrester by Iain Forrester January 13th, 2002

The debut album by Southampton four-piece Black Nielson, Still Life Hear Me opens with the title track, a two minute thrash with distorted guitars and muffled vocals about "finally giving a damn". Fortunately for fans of last summer's hazy psychedelic single Lasoo The Moon, this turns out to be a complete red herring. For the large part this album follows the single's blueprint, meaning mellow acoustic laments and swirling synths, with vocals that are appropriately fragile and emotional without being as irritatingly high-pitched as those of some similar singers. The most obvious influences are American, with Grandaddy's lo-fi debut album Under The Western Freeway coming to mind the most often, especially in The Shuttle That Didn't Appear and the second single Calm Down It's All A Dream, which cleverly manages to sound just enough like Grandaddy's Summer Here Kids to be an equally great uptempo pop song without actually sounding like a copy.

Proceedings do become slightly too slow in the second half, and Black Nielson could possibly do with another burst of something different to break it up as I think there is only so much gentle acoustic beauty even the biggest fan of such music can take in one go. That theory might not even apply though, were it all as fantastic as strangely-titled closer Our Little Family Of Bears, whose majestic beauty beats almost anything the bands they are influenced by have ever produced, and manages to go on for 8 minutes whilst still seeming a complete joy to listen to.

This is a fine debut, and definitely well worth checking out if this genre is your thing.

  • 8
    Iain Forrester's Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Year: 2020


  • Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter


  • Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing


  • Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alternative must sees


  • A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash


  • Way Out East: DiS Does Sharpe Festival 2019



Left-arrow

Minotaur Shock

Chiff-Chaffs & Willow Warblers

Mobback
1109

The Vines at Camden Electric Ballroom, Camden, Thu 19 Feb

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    news


    Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Y...

  • 106141
  • news


    Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter

  • 106139

    Playlist


    Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing

  • 106138
  • Festival Preview


    Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alterna...

  • 106137

    Interview


    A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

  • 106136
  • Festival Review


    Way Out East: DiS Does Sharpe Festival 2019

  • 106135

    Festival Review


    25 years of SPOT Festival: DiS Picks Its Best 11

  • 106134
  • Festival Review


    Twelve Hours Of Drone Is Just The Beginning: Di...

  • 106133
MORE


    Artist-generated


    Grizzly Bear Week: Grizzly Bear Gumbo

  • 49018
  • feature


    Radiohead: Phil Selway discusses In Rainbows

  • 34910

    Interview


    DiS meets Johnny Marr: “Art and entertainment d...

  • 98039
  • Column


    Reformations, eh? - Falco on the slight-return ...

  • 97723

    Playlist


    89 Cover Songs - A Playlist

  • 101433
  • feature


    No Surprises? 15 Classic Albums of 15 Years Ago

  • 82815

    Playlist


    Playlist: Summertime Sadness

  • 100688
  • news


    16 Most Read Articles We Published In 2016

  • 104323
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2021 DROWNED IN SOUND