Episode 233 - Head to Head: The Blackened Air vs You Follow Me by Nina Nastasia (Side A)

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This week we have the first of two episodes on Nina Nastasia, as we go deep into her career, decision to vanish from the public eye, recent events and much, much more.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s been a wee while since we did a head-to-head episode, but Chris and Vicki couldn’t agree which of her albums was the best, so here we are. Vicki has chosen her second album, The Blackened Air, whilst Chris has gone for her 2007 collaboration with The Dirty Three’s Jim White, You Follow Me.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But there’s a bit of an elephant in the room here that we felt we had to address. As of writing (September 2022), Nina is in the midst of wrapping up press for her most recent album, Riderless Horse. It’s a landmark album for her in two ways:</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One: it is her first album in over a decade. In the time between this album and 2010’s Outlaster, she essentially vanished from the public eye, except for one single that she released in 2018 called Handmade Card.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Two: it is the first release since the suicide of her partner Kennan Gudjonsson. She has openly stated in interviews recently that Kennan had a lot of input into almost all aspects of her career, so this album, in her view, is also her first ever “solo” album as it is the first time she’s ever made music without her former lover.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the press surrounding Riderless Horse Nina has gone into a lot of detail around the nature of her relationship with Gudjonsson, particularly with regards to his controlling, manipulative behaviour and how long it really took her to see it.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Needless to say, there was no way we couldn’t bring this up in any conversation about Nina Nastasia’s music given how integral Gujonsson was, by her own admission, to her music.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On this week’s ep