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REVIEW: NATI, The Exchange – ‘The folky NATI was nowhere to be seen’
Have you ever been taken by surprise? Blindsided? Dumbstruck?
Have you ever expected one thing and got about a thousand other things, all a bit better, a bit shinier than the last?
The last time Scottish singer-songwriter NATI played in Bristol she supported The Longest Johns with a set of hummable folk-pop songs and a voice somewhere between Julie Fowlis and Etta James.
is needed now More than ever
She wasn’t like that on this night.
This NATI was a bouncing, laughing and pouting pop princess.
A prettily strummed acoustic was replaced by crunchy 80s power pop guitars, Wild Mountain Thyme swept away in favour of Sabrina Carpenter’s Taste.
This was like opening a present, expecting a good book, only to be showered with an explosion of confetti and glitter-y sparkles. It was utterly fabulous.
She describes herself as a ‘Painfully Scottish musician’
Touring in support of the recently released Golden EP, NATI seems hellbent on claiming the same super-smart, insanely catchy pop playground that CMAT is having loads of fun cavorting about in.
Where CMAT has her sparkly cowboy hat and her country vibes, NATI is all about the big chorus and the nods to massive MTV-era guitar pop.
When I Find Her is stuffed with oo-oos and a hook that could be heard from space, while This Town has a chorus that Taylor Swift would sell her soul for.
5 More Minutes, taken from the previous EP Older, is an absolute anthem; a slice of perfect sing-along pop slathered in shiny indie guitars.
It’s music for jumping about to, with joyful abandon, whilst singing into your hairbrush.
So, for that matter, is Ashes, with its skitter-y drum beats and wiggly synths.
If Midnight slows things down a touch – there’s a genuine, tearful, catch in the throat as NATI pours her soul into it – leading, perfectly, into a helter-skelter version of Taste.
Sabrina Carpenter’s slightly lightweight pop tune becomes an alt-banger, full of sass and fun, a cheeky twinkle in the eye.
This is girl-pop turned all the way up, a joyous way to smash the clouds away.
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Buried somewhere beneath Open Road is a folk-ish, country-ish song but, quite frankly, it’s too busy having a damn good time to care.
You could picture the chorus bursting out of radios all over the place, the sing-along dizzyingly infectious. NATI’s voice as good, probably better, than any pop queen you could name.
Her short set fizzes with energy, a gleeful presence bolstered with bass and drums but it is, most of all, the songs that count.
Heard It All Before has the same oh-oh-ohs as Goldfrapp’s Rocket and it lodges into the ears just as happily.
Golden, taken from the latest EP, is a fantastic pop song complete with a chorus far bigger than the Exchange has any right to contain. It’s noisy in all the right places but shoots sunshine rays straight to your heart.
The folky NATI was nowhere to be seen, but what emerged was a proper pop star. A glorious surprise, one covered in confetti and glitter and about to be a superstar.
All photos: Gavin McNamara
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