Nick Noir- Art of the State

ARTIST: Nick Noir

ALBUM: Art of the State

LABEL: Dark Celebrity Records

REVIEWER: Matthew J.

DATE: 7-4-07

Singer/songwriter Nick Noir is clever enough, and has a decent voice, but the amateurish production on this CD seriously detracts from the charms of the music itself. Noir's vocal style is a sort of gruff croon, calling to mind the deep but brooding style of Leonard Cohen on such songs as "Bugatti" and "Clouded Reason," while electronic undercurrents and a hint of psychedelic haze is suggestive of more tripped out acts like Radiohead or even Love and Rockets, whose crunchy stoniness seems to have inspired this album's excellent rocker "Sisyphus." Occasionally things veer toward pretentious, and the references to Greek mythology get a little thick, but Noir is intelligent enough to pull it off without being precious. Unfortunately, there's significantly less cleverness in the recording quality, and poor choices in the studio are enough to obscure the quality of the songwriting. Cheap-sounding vocal effects on "You Made the Sun" wreck the song's bluesy charm, and the drifting rock 'n' roll of "Ocean of Salt" is ruined by too much reverb. While the string arrangements on "Devil Up Your Sleeve" and electric guitar feedback on "Moonlight" are nice enough, they don't make up for all the weak drum programming and garage band vocal processing. Hopefully Noir will realize that sometimes less is more by the time he records the next album, and either hire on some studio musicians or consider doing an acoustic album. His songs deserve better than this.

Visit www.nicknoir.com for more information.