South

The album opens with "If I saw you in a movie." a sweet little song about how, as people, we connect to the characters in movies and love them and their story, but sometimes the true heros are the ones next to us and if we saw them in a movie "doing all the things you do for me" then "I would fall in love with you.". As always, her sweet and powerful voice is a real winner. Next up is "Talk to me" (probably my least favourite on the album.) Still, her vocals are delicious. Track 3, lead single "Virus of the mind" shows us a breezy and cool Heather talking about the pressures of being put into specific boxes (Ironic considering the sound of the song is being managed by the record company.)

"Like lovers do." reminds me of old Heather Nova in a new Heather Nova style. It's sweet and sounds lovely, but it wastes Bryan Adams voice, as he can hardly be heard and her voice is far too powerful for any backing singers. The theme behind "Waste the day" also reminds me of older Heather Nova but the way it's written is much simpler and the sound of the song can feel akward. "Heaven sent" is a highlight of the album. True, it sounds poppy, but on the chorus her vocals soar and I quite like the lyrics.

"It's only love" is nice, and could probably have fitted on her last album, Siren, without people noticing. "I'm no angel" isn't a winner with me, it's catchy and better than anything you'd find in the charts today...but it just isn't Heather Nova, and it seems like a pretty simple song to have had a co-writer. "Help me be good to you." and "When somebody turns you on" both benefit from her voice and they are both nice gems.

The cover of "Gloomy sunday" is pretty simple and doesn't do a lot of me. The last 2 songs are pure Heather Nova. I love them. "Tested" (Though I prefered the band version of the No angel single) and "Just been born" (the album highlight) make use of her voice and have very Heather Nova-style lyrics. These 2 songs could have fitted on any one of her past albums and found a nice home there.

Overall, I'd give this album an 8 out of 10. If you look at it as a new artist then it's a fantastic album. If you look at it from the point of view of it being a Heather Nova album, then it dissapoints. Aside from a handful of tracks, too much pressure from V2 destroyed the intergrity and focus of the album. The album doesn't flow as well as her past releases, but the songs still have Heather's voice, which always sounds amazing. South could have been great had Heather had full control. Fortunatly, she left her record company 'cause of this. And got back to her own vision with her next album "Storm." I'd recommend any of her other albums above this one.

Hoping for some more tracks like this (you can't
plough the same furrow album after album - it
kills any chance of longevity), only "Virus of
The Mind" came close (and would be my choice for
the second single, if there's ever going to be
one).

The ingredient that's actually missing from this
album is the usual wondrous mixture of Heather's
ethereal voice coupled with outstanding melody
and lyrics. The bottom line is that not all the
melodies are memorable here. However, a slightly
disappointing Heather Nova album means that it's
better than 99% of the albums that did make the
UK Top 40 this year.

If you're a first time buyer of Nova's goodies,
try "Oyster" and then "Siren" ("Wonderlust" is
a very good live album, but it's arguably too
close to the studio versions). Once you're
hooked on Heather, you'll do like I did and
seek out her entire back catalogue.