Album Review: Scott Nicks – Slowly

by GDK

In all honesty how many good bands have you heard with overly noticeable dual tone vocals on every song? Scott Nicks may very well be the first. I’m not quite sure how to describe this album or classify it, it’s not necessarily diverse or crazily experimental but there’s definitely something about it.

During the first listen through I was very intrigued by this new and unique sound, both the mix and the entirety. The mix isn’t polished but the songs have a very clean flow to them, they make the songs sound bigger and fuller. I can’t say too much about the drums other than they had either an amazing snare or the perfect mic placement because the snare sounds on this album are killer.

Continuing through this album I started to realize that the sound of this album is almost haunting. Perhaps it’s the vocals that when layered sound somewhat like a church organ, or maybe it’s the guitar playing very melodic and harmonious chords and passages. Whatever it is its pretty inventive and really cool.

If I had to choose a song on this album to point out for praise it has to be ‘Your Weakness Existant’ or ‘Scarlet Song’. ‘Your Weakest Existant’ reminds me of one of my favorite bands of all time – My Mourning Jacket. This song is very melodic and emotional yet really creepy (think Cradle of Filth but really slow and not trying to be creepy sounding). ‘Scarlet Song’ has a really cool and groovy brass section over a guitar pattern that sounds very Latin and flamenco, very beautiful piece.

This whole album sounds very organic and natural sounding, almost as if it was jammed out for the majority then a little bit of fine tuning. If you’re a fan of multiple genre mood music then this is a perfect fit for you.

Scott Nicks – Slowly gets a moody 4.5 strums out of 5.