5 out of 5

Label: Secretly Canadian

Produced by: Steve Albini

Those of us who’d classified Emma Louise “Scout” Niblett as a gentle-hearted folkster’s after her debut and singles with Jason Molina were in for a rude awakening with followup I Am.  From the garishly unflattering covet image to the album’s sudden and violent bursts of distortion and yells, this seemed like a Niblett worlds apart from Sweet Heart Fever.  Indeed, this was only an introduction to the reality of an artist unleashed: ensconced in her Scout persona, willing to take lyrical and musical risks that would amount to subsequently amazing albums.

And I Am still hits its mark beyond a surprise change up: it’s one of the most raw albums I’ve heard, and though not explicitly a gendered experience, so much of its force feels like a fantastic fuck you to male / female expectations, as well as simply (…though not simple to execute) striking a defining pose on its own unclassifiable terms.

Who else to capture something like this than Steve Albini?  A perfect mate: stripping away excess to let Scout pound her drums and riff her guitar, vocals either sweet or shrill alongside her minimalist pluckings and simple tunes.  The album rolls and rumbles between basic beats and chants, contemplative folk-tinged tracks, and goddamn rockers.  Scout’s lyrics, misleadingly childlike at points, work as individual picking-aparts on relationships, on herself, and then work as a whole as an intense study of who she is and wants to be, culminating in the finality of the off-tuned title track.

It could be said that this approach was polished on later discs (though thankfully never diluted to something softer), but the comparison doesn’t maker this effort any less of a gut-punch of emotion and inspiration.