Ltd Edition of 350 (US Pressing) - LP/DL
New Zealand's Nadia Reid has spent the better part of ten years writing music for her debut full-length album 'Listen To Formation, Look For The Signs'.
The seeds of Reid's song writing were sewn while she was growing up in Port Chalmers New Zealand. Bob Scott, from The Bats, was her guitar teacher for a while but the pivotal moment came a little later. Reid and Hannah Harding, who plays under the name Aldous Harding, started to sing and write music together. One summer they lived together. That led to performing together, and Nadia’s course was set.
Scissor Tail came across Nadia's music via Mark Ward's Australian radio show Sideway's Through Sound on 2ser fm. I was blown away by the production and songwriting on the album and being a huge fan of Angel Olsen and Tamara Lindeman's music this album really hit home. Considering the aesthetic of the label over the last 5 years this album is a bit of a departure, but also a very welcomed one.
P R E S S
"Nadia Reid, from Port Chalmers, New Zealand, is a folkish, slightly country, roots oriented singer songwriter. In the words of her songs, love is dangerous, good things are missed or longed for, and habits last a long time;in the music, guitars twang spaciously and the drumming when present moves with slow stealth"… [link to review]
Pitchfork -
Love is sold on the promise that it's better than any solitary satisfaction, so you might as well bet everything on it, time and time again. On "Call the Days", New Zealand songwriter Nadia Reid cuts to the heart of this deception: "I was happy on my own," she sings in a plainspoken lilt. "I would call the days as they were known." Yet there's no trace of vengeance in her deep, capable voice, and the surface of her gorgeous song remains steady, as a raga-like drone anchors rolling acoustic guitar and languid cello. Instead, like Laura Marling or Joan Shelley, the self-assurance Reid had once cultivated acts as its own safe harbor, turning the event into a meditation rather than a rupture. For a new artist, her confident grace is all the more remarkable. - Laura Snapes [link to review]
MOJO -
Every so often a new musician comes along whose music is so of itself, that it feels wrong to trout out the usual 'sounds like' comparisons. So it is with Nadia Reid, who seems to have slipped straight into such an emotionally rich and mature style that it both bellies her age (23), and gives the listener the curious feeling that they have already been a fan of hers for years. But although there is a timeless feel about her music and one can detect a number of influences, this gem of an album is all about originality and new slants on old forms…
NPR -
Love is knowing what's best for yourself. We grasp at straws trying understand what that is, but even in that knowledge, we betray our best intentions to get stupid about another person. On "Call the Days," New Zealand folk artist Nadia Reid sings, "I was happy on my own / I would call the days as they were known" with a knowing yip, against a droning backdrop of closely mic'd acoustic guitars and longing cello. It's a heartbroken song, but made self-assured by Reid's warm, marbled alto. - Lars Gotrich [link to video/review]
This is a joint vinyl release with Spunk Records (AU) and Scissor Tail (US)
