Nice Cold Nation – Invictus (Album – Nice Cold Nation)
Genre/Influences: Electro-Pop, Wave-Pop.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: The French Nice Cold Nation is back with the last chapter of an album-trilogy, which started with the “Life” (2019)-album and “Time” (2020). Christophe D. and female backing singer Caroline GD brings us nine new tracks to achieve the trilogy.
Content: This album moves on there where “Time Stopped”. The main sources of inspiration remain pretty 80s-like. I once again noticed some sound aspects reminding me of The Cure, but globally speaking Nice Cold Nation sounds more Electro-driven and into melancholic reverie. All songs are again sung in English except the title track, which is a poem translated into French from William Ernest Henley. Only 2 songs from the album feature female backing vocals.
+ + + : “Invictus” sounds more accomplished than previous releases. The opening cut “Painless” even sounds as a promising opener and definitely the best song I’ve heard from this band. Another attention grabber is “Fight The Night” revealing an interesting progression in the songwriting while there’s an excellent match between guitar and electronics. I also have to mention the title song, which is the perfect illustration of dark reverie.
– – – : When listening to this band I feel some nostalgia; getting me back to the 80s and 90s when artists worked with producers. A good producer is often improving different aspects of the production and that’s precisely what Nice Cold Nation needs. The production sounds too flat and not elaborated enough!
Conclusion: “Invictus” is the best work I’ve heard from Nice Cold Nation, but there’s still much to improve and accomplish.
Best songs: “Painless”, “Fight The Night”, “Invictus”.
Rate: (6).
Artist: www.nicecoldnation.com
About Nice Cold Nation
Nice Cold Nation is the wave-pop and dark-wave project of French musician Christophe D., joined by backing vocalist Caroline GD. The project released “Sunless” in 2015 and “Collapse” in 2016, followed by the “Crossroads” EP in 2018. “Life” (2019) opened a planned trilogy continued by “Time” (2020) and closed with “Invictus” (2021). Nice Cold Nation went on to release “Safe” (2022), “Cartésiens” (2023) and the “Êtres Contraires” EP (2023), the last two drawing on the poetry of writers such as Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine.
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