Nathalie Nahai CD Review

Artist – Nathalie Nahai
Title – Fortune Teller
Label – Fuzzy Muskrat Records
Catalogue No. – 796873010498
Rating – 4 ½ stars

Nathalie Nahai’s latest offering Fortune Teller is an album full of raw, emotional songs with Nathalie’s vocals stripped bare. This is a magical and charming collection of songs all written by Nathalie. An album full of honesty and openness. Nathalie’s music doesn’t fit into any one category. Her songs mix a traditional old style country with a combination of pop, blues and jazz to produce something fresh and exciting yet also strangely old fashioned and innocent. Nathalie’s music is influenced by folk and bluegrass music. Fortune Teller is made up of songs that express what it is like to be a woman falling in love. Not an album for the faint hearted this album touches on heartbreak and seduction as well as forbidden love and how people can use romance in a cruel way to seduce and manipulate people to get want they want often hurting the person they profess to love in the process.

Polly Ride On is a fantastic opening track, which really showcases Nathalie’s vocal talents. Simple and unobtrusive backing music combined with Nathalie’s edgy vocals give this track plenty of emotion and atmosphere.

Blood & Cyanide follows in a similar style to the opening track. Nathalie’s vocals are bold and full of an understated angst yet hauntingly beautiful at the same time.

Overboard is a slightly livelier song with a strong country feel to both Nathalie’s vocals and the music. This song is very close to Nathalie’s heart as it was written about her first love.

Queen & Country sees a change in style once again. This song has a slight blues feel to it. The music is much more pronounced than on earlier tracks giving this song a real edge. Nathalie’s vocals lose much of their innocence and rawness on this song, yet there is still a certain charm about this number.

La Boheme is the only song on the album in which Nathalie does not sing in English. This is a charming song full of passionate vocals and music. This song gives the album a different dynamic and certainly shakes up the style and atmosphere of the whole album.

Winter sees Nathalie return to her earlier sound. This is another song where Nathalie’s vocals are raw and full of passion.

Where Children Play has a strange feel to it. Nathalie’s vocals have a really haunting feel to them especially in the chorus where her voice goes up an octave. Listening to this song Nathalie’s voice shares some similarities in style to Amy Lee, the lead singer of the group Evanescence.

Only There is another song with a strong country feel to it. The music is quite catchy and Nathalie’s vocals are kept simple, never over embellished. This is an enjoyable track worthy of plenty of air play.

Sly Girl has a blues/jazz feel to it. This song has quite a dramatic feel to it. Lyrically this song is full of little gems for example – ‘you may have your wicked way but who will have you when the day is done?’ and ‘you say that you are so unhappy but you bite the hand that feeds’. The song ends a little prematurely leaving the listener wanting to hear more.

Softly Now rounds off the album. This is another really organic song, where Nathalie’s vocals are allowed to shine brightly.

The ten tracks on this album are all great and certainly well crafted. To really appreciate this album you need to sit quietly and listen closely to the lyrics contained in the songs. This is the only way to immerse yourself in the passion and beauty that exudes from the tender words and vocals that make up these fragile little gems. Nathalie certainly wears her heart on her sleeve during this album and from a listener’s perspective that is no bad thing.