Search - Nits :: Hits

European pop at its best

Eric Facon | Basel | 07/06/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If this Dutch band has failed to make an impact in America and England, it is most certainly not due their music. Over the course of 25 years, 17 CD's and innumerable concerts, this quartet has explored pop music with a distinctly continental European atmosphere and has constantly reinvented itself, sometimes even from CD to CD. Until 1996, the band evolved around the twin talents of keyboarder-wizard Robert Jan Stips, who can play circles around most everybody in this business, and singer/songwriter/guitarist/mastermind Henk Hofstede. Stips then left the band but the Nits moved on and continued developing as usual. Hoftsede's singing at times recalls Lennon and Cohen. His melodic, intelligent and melancholy, literate but never elitist songs take in very diverse subjects such as art ("A touch of Henry Moore"), bike riding in Amsterdam ("Bike in head") and childhood memories ("In the dutch mountains") and are quirky but always accessible. If you have a soft spot for XTC, Costello, Joe Jackson, Squeeze, Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake and - of course - the Beatles, you should give these guys a try. At their best - and much of it is on this double-CD -the Nits - even though they continue a certain tradition of melodic pop songs - sound just like nobody else. In fact, they will give you a perfect soundtrack for long fall and winter eveneings and nights. "Nits Hits" does a fairly good, but also pretty obvious job of collecting the hits ("Dutch mountains", "J.O.S. days", "The train", "Nescio"); more attention to the album tracks and maybe chronological sequencing could have helped understanding the idiosyncratic path of this band. I'll give it five stars nevertheless because of the quality of the songs."

Greatest Nits

Laszlo Regoczi | New York | 04/05/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"They have many albums and many faces. Since 1974 they changed a lot. I can not tell they changed in a good way or bad way, whatever they did, do, will do is great. You can not put them in a box, `ok, they play this and this kind of music` and store them on a shelf with a tag of the genre. Every single album is a gem from the Nits and they are all different from each other. Every time you get a new work of Nits you`re surely gonna be surprised of what they have done. They have all kind of stuff. It`s been almost 30 years they started. The singer/songwriter/lyricist Henk Hofstede is a genius, the drummer Rob Kloet is brilliant (not an every-corner-has-the-same-pop-drummer type of musician). They always have excellent members in the band.
This album is a sample of their work but they cannot do a `Greatest Hits` as one piece together. It`s great that`s for sure but you need to listen to their entire work. The best band has ever been on this planet."

The best from the best band from Continental Europe!

Frans van der Mark | 10/05/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've been a big fan of this band since 1987 (their hit "In the Dutch mountains"). Their music touched me because the lyrics and music are simply wunderful. Subjects of their songs are of such variety, that it is a pleasure to hear them. The last 11 songs on the CD are live songs taken from their 1989 hit album "Urk", as far as I am concerned the best they ever did. These songs were made with love."