First things first. This album features probably the worst album cover I’ve come across on a release that might be considered for review in this publication. A cheesy photo of Nowottny emerging from a road case with various instruments. Faux film holes (from old-school negative strips) are tacked onto the left and right edges, with cheap and nasty typesetting to top it all off. I’m almost (almost) certain it’s ironic, but there’s a nagging doubt that it isn’t. I mention all this because it’s pretty consistent with the actual music. And it really does have me stumped. Either the subtlest and sliest irony I have ever encountered is going way over me, or it is actually the unintentionally cheesiest recording I’ve reviewed.
There’s some evidence to steer me toward the former. I’ve seen her name-checked in The Wire magazine, the press release comes with a review of a gig she did at the Knitting Factory – underground cred. all round. And she came to prominence as a 16 year old avant-gardist on the back of her debut album. And I can imagine being impressed if I stumbled across a 16 year old operating in this manner, in an alternative universe to the one the average mainstream media fed teenager might inhabit. In that context I could overlook the affectation. The issue is, that was 10 years ago, there’s been numerous releases since then, but it is still what all the publicity is selling her with.
On a musical level, and let’s face it, that’s what is ultimately important here, it really is hard to enjoy the forced naivety, particularly of Nowottny’s singing. The only thing worse than r’n’b diva warbling is when it’s done by someone who can’t hold pitch. Any of a thousand unsuccessful Idol auditionees could recreate the approximation used on most of these tracks. And the listless lo-fi synth and drum machine backing doesn’t help things. For a collection of songs, which one must assume is the focus due to the lack of any musical innovation, there isn’t much to grab attention. A few tracks mid-disc – ‘Mr So & So’, ‘Burnin’ Up For You Baby’ and ‘Keep Our Love Alive’ – utilise an electro swagger that reminds of Peaches or Princess Superstar and stand out from the rest of the album, but ultimately only because they are reminiscent of interesting things rather than actually being so themselves.
Look, I could be wrong. There possibly is some incredible uber-underground in-joke that I’m not getting. But, based on the evidence I have before me, namely the music on What Is She Doing?, I’d have to conclude that it is, to use a British term, actually just naff.
Adrian Elmer
