The Brit buries her anger under glittering pop.
Nadine Shah’s music has always thrived on contradictions: on HOLIDAY DESTINATION she negotiated war and flight into infectious post-punk, KITCHEN SINK wrapped the discussion of gender roles in funky sounds. FILTHY UNDERNEATH is the logical further development of this principle and much more: the sound is bigger, more expansive and more open and yet takes the album title very seriously – underneath all the grooves there is the same anger that has characterized the Brit since the beginning of her career.
It is hidden in Shah’s velvety voice, which can also be cutting, and in the sawing, off-kilter synth riff and the thunderous drums on “Greatest Dancer”. And of course, more obviously but tempered by humor and empathy, in the lyrics: on “Topless Mother” she describes fruitless conversations with an incompetent therapist, “Twenty Things” deals with addiction – Shah’s own and that of the people she meets on the way to Improvement occurred. The fact that FILTHY UNDERNEATH does not ignore the difficult circumstances in which she has found herself in recent years and still sounds life-affirming – only Nadine Shah can do that.
You can find out which albums were released in February 2024 via our monthly release list.