Last year, with Nerina Pallot's Year of the Wolf album on the verge of release, the ever delightful pop songstress turned out a gloriously fizzy synth rework of lead single Put Your Hands Up. And now, ushering in a Deluxe Edition re-release of the album, Nerina steps up to treat her fans to another We Are The Chatterleys mix.
The smooth, balladic tones of All Bets Are Off are transformed into a trembling, sultry alt-electro version; Nerina's vocals as always achieving a level of crisp, soaring delicacy that borders the sublime. Like the wind on the cusp of a budding spring morning, it teases and soothes - the embodiment of flowering British songwriting talent.
The deluxe edition of Year of the Wolf is set for a 30th January release date and will feature three new tracks alongside six cover versions recorded for the BBC:
Crazy In Love [Beyonce cover from Dermot O’Leary]
Rocket Man [Elton John cover from Weekend Wogan]
The Chime Of A City Clock [Nick Drake cover from Jools Holland]
Someone To Watch Over Me [Gershwin song taken from Friday Night Is Music Night]
Life On Mars [David Bowie cover taken from Friday Night Is Music Night]
High & Dry [Radiohead cover taken from In Concert, Abbey Road]
Here's the new video from Nerina Pallot, and isn't it pretty! All Bets Are Off is one of the most soulful, passionate tracks from her stellar Year of the Wolf album and the delicate, snowy video makes us wish it was still Christmas, the smell of roast dinner and pine trees wafting through the air. Oh, with good company and good cheer warming our hearts.
The track has already shot straight to Radio 2's A list and Nerina's appeal is even making waves abroad - she's also busy in Germany acting as a guest mentor on The Voice (so basically like how Jessie J was to Tulisa on last year's X Factor).
All Bets Are Off has long been one of my favourites from Nerina Pallot's latest LP, so it's great to hear it'll be getting a full single release early next year.
Revolving in the languishing string-laced grandeur of strings and classy retro-pop flavours, the track is the crystallisation of everything the album stands as - a beautiful personification of human emotion and every aspect it can betray of ourselves.
Currently busy in Germany on their version of The Voice (don't worry, we'll be getting our very own version of the show in the UK next year), Nerina has been beguiling the hearts of people everywhere. If there ever was a female star that summed up in such simple prettiness what it means to be a quality singer songwriter, it's Nerina.
As the unexpected little harp refrain creeps in at the tail end of the track, you're left with an intense, aching longing. It's like the last days of Christmas, as the tree comes down and work beckons again - those few dreamy weeks cut short once again. For just that short while, everything was 'just right'.
When looking to the long lost past it's oh so easy to fall into the trap of becoming a cheesy pastiche. But when things go right, the results can sound so thoroughly authentic they could quite easily sit alongside the originals.
And such can be said of Nerina Pallot's fourth album Year Of The Wolf - a dreamy, wonderful record that mines deep into the sounds of the 60s and 70s. And the real joy is that it works so well because it manages to keep that air of authenticity intact while underpinning it with all the contemporary pop production you'd expect from a songwriter of Pallot's calibre.
Put Your Hands Up is an inspired opener to the record, and quite simply one of the best pop tracks of the year. Here, as with the majority of the songs on the album, Nerina's vocals remain the focal point - in this instance starting off sultry and hushed, but transforming in an instant into a powerhouse Dionne Warwick-esque performance. Put Your Hands Up revolves in such an inherent sense of soulfulness that you can't help but feel head over heels in love with its chorus.
Buzzing with producer Bernard Butler's guitars (him of Suede and Duffy fame), the track brings to mind the timeless charms of the Rolling Stones' Satisfaction, but here dolled up with Pallot's charm - pushing every bit of the unadulterated joy the song's title reflects.
Those punches of guitar are something of a recurring theme on Year Of The Wolf, and while the album always feels effortlessly cool and chilled-out, it still manages to find time to let loose in moments like these. Perhaps it's testament to Nerina lending her songwriting talents to a certain Kylie Minogue recently (she co-wrote Better Than Today and Aphrodite from the Australian songstress's most recent album), but there's a distinct bouncy happiness stamped across the album's upbeat tracks, and the record is all the better for it. This is a fun record, and never is that emphasised more than on the ELO styled I Think, a personal favourite of mine.
One word to sum up the album? Rich. And not just Nerina's honeyed vocals, but also the swirling, chocolatey depths of the tracks themselves. Whether its the reverb-heavy guitar of If I Lost You Now, which shimmers like a Tarantino movie soundtrack - or the delicate harp outro of All Bets Are Off - the album never ceases to surprise with its intricacy.
I'm reminded of *those* supermarket adverts, you know the ones... You see, this isn't just a good album, but it's a good Nerina Pallot album - and that's something that lifts it to another level of greatness.
In a year where female singer-songwriters have been ten-a-penny, Nerina more than holds her own. Songs like This Will Be Our Year or Will You Still Love Me are the kind of track that could easily appear on an Adele album; but where Adele is all about forceful and brazen passion in her delivery, Nerina affects her songs with a far more delicate tint. There's a cute almost-shyness to the album which serves to give it so much more tenderness.
Another personal highlight of mine is Butterfly, the album's most guitar-orientated track. With a melody that recalls David Bowie's Heroes, it conjures up images of endless American highways that stretch away across the plains. Here, like so many tracks on Year Of The Wolf, Nerina's personality shines through so well - something that so many singers, no matter how technically accomplished they might be, struggle with.
This album sees Pallot re-signing with a major label, and with Put Your Hands Up already becoming a sizeable airplay hit, Year Of The Wolf deserves every bit of the critical acclaim it has already received. Go out and buy it - because overlooking such a pop gem as this would be quite frankly criminal.
