Heather Nova

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So what do people think of Heather Nova? A lovely girl who would be better off pursuing a career in glamour photography, or an actually very talented singer-songwriter.

My own feeling is that she has a lovely voice, but isn't too good at songwriting. And the one album of hers I heard was horribly overproduced.

― DV, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I am only starting this thread to filch your opinions for an article I have to write.

― DV, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I like her name. It feels almost as fake as mine.

― Sterling Clover, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Hey Vicar, did you notice that Mr. Finney (he of the Skykicking) just wrote a little entry on Ms. Nova?

The two songs of hers I have heard ("Sugar" and "Walk This World") make her sound like a semi-poetic porn star in heat. Such encounters don't make me eager to COME clean and actually put my money where my mouth is.

― David Raposa, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

She's cute, she occaissionally sings sexually suggestive lyrics, but the best thing about her is that her producer (on at least one album) was......

**YOUTH FROM KILLING JOKE -- HONOR THE FIRE!**

http://www.maliciousdamage.com/gallery/youth/youth15.JPG

― Alex in NYC, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Hey Vicar, did you notice that Mr. Finney (he of the Skykicking) just wrote a little entry on Ms. Nova?

huh? where?

I like her song "My fidelity" which was on one of the Volume compis. I dislike everything else I've ever heard by her.

― DV, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Right here, Mr. V.

― David Raposa, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

also, she is Mishka's sister.

― DV, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

That Finneyarticle was interesting... to be honest though, I think that Heather Nova is at her best when she is being the most singer- songwritery.

I am basing all this on hearing one album and two songs on Volume. ah well.

― DV, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

If I see one more pathetic glamour shot of Killing Joke on ILM I shall stage a revolt.

― Melissa W, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Laugh at me if you must, but i think she's great.

she's got a lovely voice, and i also think she's sort of foxy.

ive got pretty much all her albums, and while some of it is overproduced tosh, by the same token, she can write some half decent tunes.

but then again this might just be a ploy to exploit my weakness for female vocals (sundays, VU, etc)

although im not sure if i should hang my head for mentioning VU in this thread...

― Rob Carthy, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ha! Youth should be kept away from Heather. I wonder if Alex in NYC realises his work with her resembles her closest stuff to pabullum-pop. He should raise his standards.

DV: "My Fidelity" is on her first and best album Glow Stars ie. the one I talked about the most. It's probably the most singer- songwritery thing on the album, but precisely because of that it sounds even better.

― Tim, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Gawrsh, Tim, what a blow. For my money, *EVERYTHING* Heather Nova has *EVER* done has been guilty of being "the P-word". Youth probably chose to work with her because she is -- as someone above quite rightly pointed out -- quite "foxy." Youth's also twiddled knobs behind the production boards for everyone from The Verve and Paul McCartney through Alien Sex Fiend and Poe (not to mention doing a sub- par job on the last two Joke albums), so clearly the man has questionable standards to begin with.

Oh, and *JUST* for Melissa....

http://www.maliciousdamage.com/gallery/band/ band80doorway2.JPG

― Alex in NYC, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I like "What a Feeling" from Siren.

― Joe, Sunday, 17 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

three years pass...

I'm listening to her live disc Blow from 1993 for the first time. This is an awesome album - the weird ethereal unexpected aspects of Glow Stars ("Frontier" sounds even more A.R. Kane-ish here!) but combined with a heavy urgency that to my knowledge she never attempted elsewhere - the whole vibe is very full-on, standing on a cliff sorta stuff. The fact that there's some fantastic versions of songs from Oyster (released 2 years later) leads me to believe that she basically did all of her most amazing work at the very beginning of her career and just went downhill from there.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 16 February 2006 13:07 (eighteen years ago) link

After liking a track (I think Sugar) on a CMJ sampler, I got the album that Yoof produced, and I think I threw it out a car window, it was so fucking boring.

― js (honestengine), Thursday, 16 February 2006 13:30 (eighteen years ago) link

twelve years pass...

God it would have been so amazing to see Heather live circa 1993. The version of “Talking To Strangers” on Blow sounds like Bark Psychosis’ “Big Shot” a year before the fact. Everything feels simultaneously so exploratory and so cathartic.

― Tim F, Sunday, 18 February 2018 05:34 (six years ago) link

I never understood why she never did more songs like Frontier.

― Siegbran, Sunday, 18 February 2018 18:39 (six years ago) link

Tim, you have a way of "here, let me..." grab a puzzle piece out of my hands and place it exactly where it's supposed to be, me having not seen where it goes, staring for hours. The Bark Psychosis comparison is so, so spot on. It's a shame she pretty much dropped off the radar after Oyster/London Rain.

I've been listening to Glow Stars and Blow again recently. They really hold up. Oyster was the last Nova album that really did anything for me. She's still touring and releasing albums I saw - one of those artists that, after the decline of chart/press success, just ploughs on, doing what she does, with a steady fan base by the looks of it. Bless her.

― Le Bateau Ivre, Sunday, 18 February 2018 18:56 (six years ago) link

The fanbase isnt that steady by the looks of it, she played 10.000-capacity venues fifteen years ago, now it’s more like 400-800.

― Siegbran, Sunday, 18 February 2018 19:56 (six years ago) link

Thanks La Bateau.

I am curious as to how/why she moved to that heavy rock sound on some of the tracks on ‘Blow’ only a year after ‘Glowstars’, which is gorgeous and layered and dreamy but never really heavy per se - what was she inspired by? I’m tempted to imagine Throwing Muses and similar.

On ‘Oyster’ the rock production is pretty smoothed out and only “Island’” (I guess “Sugar” too to some extent) really captures what she could have done with that weight and intensity. The way she murmurs, “he’s too scared to hit me now / he’ll bring flowers instead”, and then later on the insane bridge that hissed “a kiss a kick a kiss a kickkkkkk”.

― Tim F, Sunday, 18 February 2018 21:24 (six years ago) link

Tim, you're a quality poster. Your tori posts are all time

― kolakube (Ross), Sunday, 18 February 2018 21:29 (six years ago) link

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Heather Nova - CD/SD