Welcome back to the CD Odyssey. No fun biographical facts today, dear readers. Let’s just get to it.
Disc 1660 is…Out of My Province
Artist: Nadia Reid
Year of Release: 2020
What’s up with the Cover? Woman stands with plants! I wouldn’t say Nadia Reid is lurking with these plants, but the way she’s tucked in with them it is definitely lurk-adjacent.
How I Came To Know It: I don’t remember anymore. Likely via a review but couldn’t say where I read it. I read a lot of music reviews. If you are visiting this site there’s a good chance you’ve got the same condition.
I do know that I ordered it direct all the way from…New Zealand. New Zealand – the Canada of the southern hemisphere!
How It Stacks Up: This is my only Nadia Reid album, so it can’t stack up.
Rating: 3 stars but almost 4
Sometimes an album can have everything going for it but miss the mark by not knowing when to say when. That’s the case with Nadia Reid’s “Out of My Province” a record with brilliant songwriting and production and a talented vocalist who trips herself up right at the doorstep of perfection.
Reid is a pop/folk singer with a big bold sound to her music that fills whatever space you make available. I liked this on headphones, in a car, and even in a car with the top down (which for music purposes is basically “outside”). Reid’s work is subtle and smoky but it has a sound that cuts through ambient engine sound with a efficiency that surprises you.
The song that first caught my attention was “Oh Canada” which is not the National Anthem of my homeland (that would be the differently spelled “O Canada”). “Oh Canada” is a mid-tempo tune that on the surface is about travel and discovery but underneath is a general restlessness and more than a hint of regret.
Reid generally has good depth to her tunes, conveying a lot of unresolved anxiety in lyrics that are simple statements on the surface. “Oh Canada” also has a lovely jump to it, the energy of someone that is faking it until they feel it.
Another standout is “Other Side of the Wheel,” a song about a friend giving up the roving and wandering for a 9 to 5 and a regular life. This tune has no judgment, it’s just a love letter from one friend to another about how sometimes choices diverge.
With all this good stuff and more besides - go check out the best tracks below – you’d think this album was cruising to a high score, but it was not to be. Reid has a delightful singing voice but overly complicates her delivery throughout. The ends of lines tend to have a curl or lisp to them that feels affected.
She also sometimes chooses to go on a strange run when she should just hold the note and let those heartfelt lyrics hit you in the chest. Some would say it creates a subtle magic, but the songwriting, rich production and thoughtful instrumentation already has the subtle magic covered. Those additions can work, but often it is like peeking behind the screen at the show, and a trick revealed is a spell broken.
The first time I listened to “Out of My Province” I was convinced it was one of the best albums of the year and a sure-fire five star tour de force. When I put it on this time around I harumphed a couple of times for reasons cited above and was convinced it was on the edge of the discard pile. Over the course of a couple days and a few more listens it won me back. Maybe not to perfection, but to the point that I remembered why I liked it in the first place.
This is a good record, with a great one hiding just around the corner, but good is still worth your time.
Best tracks: High & Lonely, Oh Canada, Other Side of the Wheel, I Don’t Want to Take Anything From You, Who Is Protecting Me
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