Album Review: Nadine Shah – Holiday Destination

Nadine Shah has released her eagerly awaited third full length, Holiday Destination, that follows on from her critically acclaimed 2015 sophomore album, Fast Food, her latest full length contains an eclectic mix of brooding alternative and post punk rhythms, that somehow manages to simultaneously be darker and more accessible than her previous albums. Nadine Shah has never been one to shy away from confronting important issues, and Holiday Destination is no exception as this is an album that is a informed by the refugee crisis as well as by the political upheaval and the worrying shift to the right of recent times. With Holiday Destination Nadine Shah has released a stark, defiant and brutally honest album that is easily her strongest work to date and it is now available on CD, vinyl and digital formats via 1965 Records.

Place Like This opens Holiday Destination with a mix of dark post punk that is backed by a curiously danceable rhythm, the stark post punk feel comes to the fore for the album’s title track that addresses the refugee crisis, a song that underpins it’s point with the haunting refrain of ‘how you going to sleep tonight’. 2016 looks back at the tumultuous year that cost us much in so many ways, and in case you were wondering which side of the fence Nadine Shah is on it contains the lyric ‘what is there left to inspire us with a fascist in the white house’. The album’s lead single, Out The Way, is a furious response to the refugee crisis that rattles along on an unsettling military rhythm, and is followed up by the stunning duo of Yes Men and Evil. Ordinary raises the pace of Holiday Destination and showcases Nadine Shah‘s evocative and yearning vocals, whilst Relief returns to the dark danceablilty before you get the track you feel Holiday Destination has building up to, the stunning Mother Fighter, before Jolly Sailor closes the album with a stripped down finale.

For me there’s a distinct influence from the best elements of Siouxsie And The Banshees and Public Image Limited‘s darker works about Holiday Destination, but it’s all delivered with Nadine Shah‘s personal conviction and unique style, and let’s make no mistake this is an album that is fuelled by her personal beliefs and she hasn’t held back in the slightest as Holiday Destination is as defiant as anything created by any politically motivated hardcore or punk band, but it’s delivery is far more subtle and controlled, but not less barbed. I’ll confess that I’ve been a fan of Nadine Shah ever since I heard the stunning track Runaway, from her debut album Love Your Dum And Mad, a good few years ago, but I can say with hand on heart that with Holiday Destination she has raised her game and produced an album that quite simply borders on perfection, and it’s one that will sit amongst my favourite albums of 2017

Holiday Destination is available on all formats here and Nadine Shah‘s website is here