“Preservation is about the point I started to love myself again,” muses Nadia Reid when discussing her new album. The new found sobriety and observation that Reid expresses on this, her second album, is something that is no anomaly to singer-songwriters. Through years of whimsical efforts from a whole host of artists, you begin to take the genre with a pinch of salt as each writer dwells upon their own routine issues and professes them over delicate compositions. So what will set the New Zealand-based songwriter aside? Well, this is the story of a woman who evidently never used to feel entirely comfortable in her own skin, this is a coming-of-age story and you know what, there’s a level of sincerity that makes you darn well believe it.

Self-discovery doesn’t come easily, it’s something that develops when it is nurtured and nurture is exactly what Reid aimed for and has ultimately succeeded in. After being thrust into the world of folk off the back of her acclaimed debut Formation, Look for the Signs, Reid began to tear back her insecurities one by one and piece by piece and filled the gaps with genuine elements of herself. There is a solemness that embeds itself within title track, ‘Preservation’, but simultaneously a sense of pride and strength – testament to the fact that her bare voice is practically held in isolation against the light finger-picking in the distance.

Cavernous lows and blissful highs outline every corner of Reid’s life post-debut album success and thus the record is coloured with similar contrasting emotions. In its positive lights we hear the Kurt Vile springtime shimmer of ‘Richard’ and when we reach the shadowed haunts we find ourselves stumped in emotion at the likes of ‘Arrow and The Aim’. It’s the storytelling meander of ‘Richard’ that brings about its wishful optimism – Reid discussing times of playing cricket with her brother and pushing at the arrows of time, thus giving a constant feel of joyous nostalgia.

The rose tints of ‘Richard’ pick-up elsewhere in Preservation – ‘I Come Home To You’ ushers a feeling of love. Whereas the previous track looked towards the past, this one spins the hand of time forward and talks of adventures and loves to come.

“Travelling inspires me. I’m learning that things need to happen for the writing to come. Like making time to be alone with my guitar. I’ve grown to crave that. I almost like to starve myself of it to crave it,” – this feeling of contrast litters the album thematically too. To have and to not have, the future and the past and talking of escapism whilst similarly being riddled with homesickness. ‘Right On Time’ seems to depict a setting away from home, a ship in the harbour and a person without a home, it joyously fits the category outlined by the likes of Neil Young – a free-roaming happiness and nomadic solipsism. ‘Reach My Destination’ pins a different glumness to being away though, providing every positivity in the album with its opposite, its cynical feeling is warming and realistic though, providing relatable feelings for all.

‘Te Aro’ is a desperate attempt at Nadia’s dreamy wistfulness, it lures you forward much like cattle before the executing piano and barbed guitar cuts, disarming you of any light feelings. Reid’s voice carries in isolation what most bands do in expanse, this is her power. When sparsity exists – see closer ‘Ain’t Got You’ and ‘Hanson St Part Two (A River)’ – we are given her finest chops on the album.

A nod to self-reflection and development, Preservation contrasts settings, emotions and ultimately songwriting, moving freely between the desolate and the vast. It tells universal stories through Nadia’s own, and her worn but warm voice acts as the narrator for some of the most basic of human emotions. Preservation is an album of an artist trying to tell us something about herself but similarly about ourselves, it bares insecurities but shows how she has grown from them. If only humankind could take a similar step forward we perhaps wouldn’t find ourselves unhappy and beaten so often. Hats off to Nadia Reid, this is lovely stuff.

Tom Churchill

Website: nadiareid.com
Facebook: facebook.com/hellonadiareid
Twitter: twitter.com/HelloNadiaReid
Pre-order: amazon.co.uk/Preservation-VINYL-Nadia-Reid