Thorny Illusions
Local singer-songwriter Jennifer Niceley releases trenchant debut
Jennifer Niceley's new, self-released EP, Seven Songs, is as sweet as a rose. Her voice floats over lush acoustic guitar, keyboard, strings and a brushed snare. The jukebox staple "You Belong to Me" sounds like a lullaby. A hint of twang only adds to the album's dreamy feel. It would be easy for a listener to let it all float by in a pink-scented haze.
Yet Niceley, a native of Knoxville who moved to Nashville two years ago, wants to share not the sweet but the bittersweet. Using only a few lines, she sketches the lives of emotionally bruised people whose romantic connections are flawed or disintegrating. Everyone's been around—"I've been the hunter, been the hunted," she sighs at one point—and experience has hardened them. The partners in "Falconer" can't let go of their expectations or power-plays.
A streak of fatalism runs through Niceley's dramas, where no matter how much people "want to do it different," relationships end. The need for freedom and exploration pulls one woman away from her lover in "More Than You." The one who is left behind is left with little more than regret as the otherworldly trumpet line intimates departure.
Seven Songs is not without moments of hope. "Troubled Sea" is a self-empowered take on moving on, distilling old country pluck into something more ethereal and modern. Still, the overriding sense left by Seven Songs is one of loss and resignation. This mood strips all the summer nostalgia from Jesse Winchester's "Biloxi," leaving only detachment. "You Belong to Me" encapsulates the album's approach: Niceley sounds as coyly inviting as a tropical breeze, but caution, darkness and the risk of betrayal lurk. This rose hides thorns.
—Danielle Dreilinger
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