Nadia Reid - Preservation

The Guardian 80

(Basin Rock)

Eighteen months on from Nadia Reid’s 2015 debut, Listen to Formation, Look for the Signs, the 25-year-old New Zealander has delicately but decidedly upped the ante. Her ethereal, pensive vocals are cast against plangent folk-guitar shapes, but there is more dirt under her nails. The songs deal with empowerment through determination in the aftermath of love and loss, often in no uncertain terms. The transcendental title track finds her quietly informing someone that she stayed too long. Reach My Destination bids a more bitter farewell: “Two little words that I used … One was ‘fuck’, the other was ‘you’.” Such caustic undercurrents provide startling electric shocks amid what is mostly humbling, melancholy beauty, although the 10 songs cover a spectrum from Martha Wainwright/Laura Marling acoustica to Stevie Nicks-style spectral pop. However, with little more than her voice and guitars, and Hanson St. Pt 2, I Come Home to You and Ain’t Got You are quietly, perfectly crafted statements from a blossoming talent.