Nice Cold Nation – Safe (Album – Nice Cold Nation)
Genre/Influences: Dark-Wave, Wave-Pop.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: French project Nice Cold Nation has already self-released different productions and this year strikes back with a new full length. One of the songs is dedicated to Victor Hugo who’s also featured on the front cover of the album.
Content: Sound-wise Nice Cold Nation holds on the main influences from previous albums. It’s a dreamy composition written by guitar and achieved with electronic treatments. The music often reminds me of The Cure while I also got Trisomie 21 in mind. Most of the songs are sung in English while a few ones are in French.
+ + + : I was never convinced by the work of this project which I however respect for going on to send promo material. And this album clearly reveals an improvement in the global song writing. There’s a noticeable balance between guitar and electronics but I especially like the way the songs are evolving while featuring a great, dreamy atmosphere.
– – – : The main -and maybe single point that hurts is the production of the vocals. I’m missing some passion while the English sung tracks have this terrible French accent.
Conclusion: It took several years for Nice Cold Nation to convince me of its potential but “Safe” is a fully enjoyable piece of music reminding me of great 80s memories.
Best songs: “Density”, “World War”.
Rate: 7.
Listen to “Safe”:
Artist: https://nicecoldnation1.bandcamp.com
About Nice Cold Nation
Nice Cold Nation is a French project that describes itself on Bandcamp as a cold wave band. Its catalogue is self-released and hosted there, where “Safe” sits alongside “Sunless”, “Collapse”, “Crossroads”, “Life”, “Time”, “Invictus”, “Cartésiens”, “Êtres contraires”, “Survivance” and “Getaway”.
“Safe” was released on 7 March 2022 in a limited digipak edition with an eight-page booklet. It runs eleven tracks: “Pulse”, “Half-time”, “Density (to David Bowie)”, “Loveless world”, “Outcast”, “Dawn”, “A long night”, “World war”, “Safe”, “Horizon” and “Vertical”.
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