Mostly through our own ineptitude, W&H managed to miss out on SCOUT NIBLETT'S recent (second) album "I Am," so the prospect of intoducing ourselves to her strange, dislocated and intensely personal material via this 7" single reads like a particularly esoteric virginity breaker.
For the uninitiated Scout Niblett is actually a girl called Emma who hails from Nottingham (via Jupiter judging by these weird witterings) who is gaining ground credibilty-wise with the all-important US underground. She chose her 'Scout' alter-ego because of the character in Harper Lee's immortal "To Kill A Mockingbird" and recorded "I Am" in a typically feverish four days at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio in Chicago with just guitarist Chris Saligoe and Songs: Ohia drummer Pete Schreiner in tow.
However fascinating her material is, though, it must also be said that it don't make for singles in the traditional sense, and "I'll Be A Prince" is a curious, intense affair. Over wonkily soft and chewy guitar she comes over like a cross between "Dry"-era PJ Harvey and Chan Marshall before the first of the song's two mini-crescendoes slams in like a migraine. "I'm not just a dreamer, I'll be a prince" she goes on to utter, managing to sound beguiling and vacant all at once. And this is an A-side?
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Well, yeah...and it's almost commercial when pitted against flipside "Your Beat Kicks Back Like Death". Memorable title aside, it's a strange thang indeed, with Emma keeping herself company with just a malevolent drum kit and all the while serenading us with cheery choruses of: "We're all gonna die, we're all go-oo-nn-a die-ieee." Oooh, Ambassador, wiz these blank, deadpan and morbid chants on mortality, you are spoiling us, non??!!
So, yeah, Scout's chances of making it in the next Ferrero Rocher ad are probably pretty slim, but that's hardly the point, is it? It is....oh, OK. Seriously, though, her warped, minimal musings are certainly surreally different, brave and kookily memorable and for having the audacity to unleash it on an unsuspecting populace she definitely gets my vote.
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