Search - Heather Nova :: Oyster

Her songs hook up with my brain

Bruce P. Barten | Saint Paul, MN United States | 02/27/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For me, a song that works is like finding a bicycle that is the right size for your chimp. Not everyone has ever trained a chimpanzee to ride a bicycle or picked up the words and chords to a song and found that the words suggest a melody so strongly that there is something internal that is felt exactly at the point on the paper where a chord coincides with one of the words. This is not likely to happen until the brain actually knows the song well enough to make an exterior combination of words and chords into an objective correlative for music that is entirely inside your head, but a chimp on a bicycle only needs to learn to balance and to make the pedals go around to get going.



The perfect example this morning is `Doubled Up,' the last song on the Heather Nova CD `Oyster' that I heard last night. The brain can learn to listen, but once the music is over, the brain tries to complete the experience by repeating the best part to itself, like a kid in Freud's book BEYOND THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE that demands to hear a story over exactly the same way until the child is exhausted. The kid in Freud's book was obsessed with things that were out of sight. A single servant girl could take care of the kid when his mother was not at home, but his form of play with his toys was all "there" and "gone." I'm not going to explain that game. What is even better is that Heather Nova song:



Big sky above me, a river inside me

and I'm doubled up in love.



Feels good, it feels like poetry,

don't ask me to explain, it just

feels good, like poetry,

I'm doubled up again."

Poetic Rock

Pieter | Johannesburg | 03/04/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Oyster opens with the brooding mid tempo rock number Walk This World, Heal is a tender ballad with lovely acoustic guitar whilst Island is a long passionate rock song with great vocals and evocative imagery. Love ballads like Light Years, Verona and Maybe An Angel are found alongside surges of aggressive rock. Sugar has plenty of tempo variation, starting out slow and atmospheric like a spoken poem, then developing into a full-blown rock number. I like the solemn drums and interesting arrangement of Throwing Fire At The Sun. A highlight of Oyster is the melodic pop song Truth And Bone with its poetic lyrics and hypnotic chorus. The poignant and tuneful Doubled Up In Love that concludes the album is my favorite. Nova seems to prefer complex arrangements where tender balladeering alternates with uptempo, powerful rock sections in many of her songs. Her music reminds me of both Sheryl Crow and Alanis Morissette. The style is an appealing blend of rock and pop and the album contains some exceptional songs.

"