Nadja

Desire in Uneasiness
The new studio effort from American Drone/Doom /Shoegaze duo "Nadja" clocks in at 62 minutes and isn't a moment too long. Not much has changed in the core Nadja sound and I'd struggle to pick out one thing that really sets this CD apart from anything else that they've recorded but it is by far their best work. I can't think of any way to describe the improvement other than that they've "got better" in much the same way, although in a totally different musical style, as At the Drive-in "got better" between In/Casino/Out and Relationship of Command. Desire in Uneasiness is a name that is totally detached from the sound of the album; the overall feel is one of comfort and I feel like Nadja are finally getting to terms with their sound and beginning to concentrate more on individual songs.

I first heard Nadja about a year ago and, although I fell in love with their sound, I think that most of the time that I've spent listening to them has been used thinking about what potential, to write a truly breathtaking album, they have; with Desire in Uneasiness they haven't quite made that album but they are certainly heading in the right direction. Everything about the album, the sweeping synths, the lush, rich production and the heavy drones, screams "progression" to me. The production is a lot less dense than most previous Nadja albums and maintains the insistent heaviness of their sound while giving the individual pieces some space to breathe. The inclusion of some quiet songs, the sublime "Affective Fields" for example, helps put the heaviness of the other pieces in context and is a very welcome addition to the album. My one criticism is that in achieving a "loose" sound for the album they seem to have gone a bit far at points with some drum parts being slightly out of time; this can only improve in the future and if this dynamic duo continues to improve at the rate they are doing we will be in for something special with the next Nadja studio album.

Throughout the entire album there is something refreshingly new about the music that I can't quite pin down but it's in the nature of Nadja that they're difficult to pin down. 7.5/10

Buy it here