Track Listing

1. Everybody's Gone To War
2. Halfway Home
3. Damascus
4. Idaho
5. Learning To Breathe
6. Mr King
7. Geek Love
8. Sophia
9. All Good People
10. Heart Attack
11. Nickindia

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5297 in Music
• Released on: 2006-04-24
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Undiscovered gem
I'd never heard of Nerina Pallot before yesterday. Then I saw her supporting Gretchen Wilson last night.

An absolute star. Live, her personality shines through, where you get a clear sense that she's having the time of her life. And she talks to the audience like no-one I've ever seen - "You're a smashing audience, and I should know, because I've had some really bad ones".

So I bought the album there and then (and she was totally charming when she signed it, too). And it's wonderful - everything all of the other reviewers have said is true. Lyrics that actually mean something, and some good, old-fashioned tunes!

You can put away your Katie Melua and Dido records - here's a proper female singer-songwriter at last. She's a star, and she deserves to be huge.

Fired Up
Frankly, what the world doesn't need right now is yet another female singer-songwriter - but then Nerina Pallot is not just another female singer-songwriter. Blessed with the energy of Alanis Morissette, the musical kookiness of Tori Amos and the soaraway voice of Joni Mitchell, Nerina is one of the UK's hidden talents. Having been dropped by Polydor after producing what, for me was one of the best singles of 2001 - `Patience', she is back with this new collection of eclectic songs.

What has endeared me to this album above all the competition is that her songs all manage to weld the assured harmonic progressions of Aimee Mann to the surprising melodic invention of Kate Bush and this is no mean feat. Yet despite all these comparisons, she definitely has her own personality which she brings to bear on the copious lyrics found on `Fires' ranging from the 60s like protest of `Everybody's Gone to War' to the soulful yearning of current single `Sophia'.

Checking in at 46 minutes, this album is not overlong and has been properly quality controlled so that there is very little filler (others take note!). There is also a good variety of styles evident from the poprock of the somewhat Steely Dan-ish `All Good People' to the Indian influenced `Heart Attack' and this again sets her apart from the many soundalikes operating in her market.

If you like the female singer-songwriter genre but feel, as I have, that the current offerings are a little stale, give Nerina a try. You won't be disappointed.

Just beautiful....
Having bought Dear Frustrated Superstar way back in 2002, I feared Nerina would be another one album wonder, a victim of today's music industry that doesn't stick with an artist to grow. Well she nearly was, luckily she came back on her own terms - Fires came and went in 2005 - I only found out about it by accident while scanning Amazon, it was my album of 2005. This 2nd edition of the album builds on the original and is more "spangly" to use Nerina's description, there isn't a filler track in sight...seriously. Learning To Breathe is the best song here and I hope it'll be the 5th single if there is one. The songs are well constructed and her voice is as flawless as ever...in a way I don't want her to be TOO successful - I want to keep her to myself.
In just 2 albums she has become one of my favourite singers of all time....buy this album and be amazed.