Nite Jewel - Am I Real (2010)

Coming out of Los Angeles with her dreamy 2009 debut, Good Evening, Nite Jewel gave us indie electronica in such a different way to many of her more popular peers. While the louder, more extrovert elements of the ‘80s dominate the radio these days, this artist produces lo-fi music with an ethereal, almost unearthly feel to it. She can be difficult to listen to at times, with sometimes unintelligible vocals and a readiness to allow an audible tape hiss on some tracks, but her debut LP provided its fair share of interesting moments.

It’s fair to say that she’s been working on her sound a bit for this six-track EP, Am I Real? You might not think it when you hear the first track, “Another Horizon”, which sounds like a Good Evening track, as does the blurry “Falling Far”. While they don’t make for unpleasant listening, these songs neither excite nor fit into the record very well. In fact, at times her muffled, melancholic singing loses a bit of the appeal found on her earlier work. Nothing on here reaches the same level of idyllic loveliness as, say, the first two tracks on Good Evening.

The best parts are when Nite Jewel shakes off the lo-fi vibe, such as for “Forget You & I”, a song which demonstrates well the influence of Kraftwerk-style bands in her music. Perhaps the finest moment on here is “We Want Our Things”, with a wonky bassline (that will delight fans of “What Did He Say”), an electro-tinged instrumental chorus and lyrics that could possibly be a response to a time of economic unrest. (To be honest, I was just making an obvious conclusion from the song title. There’s still a lot of echo, so it’s hard to tell what she’s on about).

Having a more polished sound isn’t always a good thing. Take “White Lies”, an unambitious track with a weak vocal that is shown up by the more modern recording style. Strangely, this gives way to the best vocal performance yet from Nite Jewel, on the title track; a really soothing vocal that wouldn’t sound out of place on a typical radio R&B song. In fact, “Am I Real?” sounds more like a pop record than anything she has done before, with an easy beat, new wave-like keyboards and a general warmness which is endearing rather than cheesy.

While there’s a lot to like about half of the six tracks here, Am I Real? doesn’t really manage to be as sonically interesting as Nite Jewel’s first LP. But her willingness to try new things and showcase more of her vocal talent than before are pleasing to hear, and bode well for her next full-length release.

6/10


This EP was released on August 16 2010 by Gloriette and is available on vinyl from Nite Jewel's website.