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Scout Niblett, This Fool Can Die Now

by Gordon Lamb
10/13/2007

On this, her fourth proper long player, Scout Niblett (born Emma Louise Niblett) continues in the vein for which she is known: songs of longing, regret and overwhelming sadness. Admittedly, I’m much more partial to Niblett’s wail than her growl. As a performer she is much more effective in her moments of intense solitude than she is on the louder, less painful tracks ( “Let Thine Heart Be Warmed”).

It’s not that Niblett isn’t meaningful when turning up the volume. It’s that she is already somewhat removed from her audience as it is (eg: she plays her live shows in a blonde wig which can only serve to construct a stage persona and mask the one she came with) and then she tenderly draws the listener in on tracks like the passionately gentle “Elizabeth (Black Hearted Queen),” only to rebuff them again when she feels the need to turn it all up.

The first quarter of the album is centered around the single “Kiss” and it’s howling refrain: “...it could kill me...” One of four duets with Will Oldham, his presence here only serves to show how unnecessary he is on this album. (Oldham’s own enormous body of work is, generally speaking, a compelling collection with few outright flubs, there is absolutely no reason for him to have his voice next to that of Scout Niblett. The effect is of an overcrowded room rather than a pair of intimate voices.)

In the end, This Fool Can Die Now leaves me as much on-the-fence with Scout Niblett as ever. Far from horrible, the album still has a schizophrenic tendency that undermines it’s own best effort. Niblett’s strengths are her ability to retrain her playing and draw the listener in. Her flaws are to muddle up the sound with needless other voices, irritating volume and stylistic jumps from tender balladry to flat-out Northern Pacific rock. With this in mind, and her blonde wig, perhaps Scout herself is also on-the-fence.