Nastasia crept to prominence last year with her superb second album, The Blackened Air. For Run To Ruin, the formula remains broadly similar: a creaky but precise gypsy orchestra; sensitive production by Steve Albini; doleful vocals that recall a superficially composed Kristin Hersh. Nastasia, though, writes better songs than Hersh has in years, and this time they’re less couched in rustic whimsy, more intimate and needling. Witness the sexual tension-packed “You Her And Me”, where a road trip turns into an unnerving psychodrama. Spare, beautiful, outstanding.
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