Artist: Nina Gordon
Album: Bleeding Heart Graffiti
Label: Warner Bros.
Tracks: 14
Length: 47:43

 

 

 

One time co-frontwoman of Veruca Salt, Nina Gordon returns with her latest solo album. Coming nearly 6 years after the release of Tonight and the Rest of My Life, I have to admit that I thought we had heard the last of Nina Gordon. Interestingly enough, Veruca Salt’s (Louise Post era) last album, Resolver, was released about the same time as Gordon’s last album. If you can’t guess where I am going with this then you may be surprised to learn that Veruca Salt’s first album in (ahem) 6 years was released around the same time as Gordon’s latest, Bleeding Heart Graffiti. Coincidence? I think not.

 

Overall Bleeding Heart Graffiti has nothing in common with Veruca Salt. It also has little in common with Tonight and the Rest of My Life. Tonight… was full of massive radio friendly pop rock songs that pretty much sounded like Veruca Salt’s Eight Arms to Hold You without the driving guitars and high energy. The new album is almost entirely ballad driven and for the most part it falls seriously short of the standards established by Gordon’s past work.

 

“Christmas Lights” and “Kiss Me Til It Bleeds” try desperately to capture the magic of songs like “Horses in the City” and “Tonight and the Rest of My Life” but they just can’t do it. The singer/songwriter style really drags them down and they lose any sense of power or urgency that may have otherwise been there. The David Bowie inspired “Suffragette” is one of the album’s highlights and Gordon hits it full on. She sounds great on this song and it offers a little hope (that is soon dashed) that the album will rise up. “Turn on Your Radio” also steps it up only to be knocked of the stairs by “When You Don’t Want Me Anymore.”

 

Basically this album tries really hard but pretty much treads water. I think Nina Gordon is one of the most overlooked artists out there but this is not her best her work.