Reasons I Don’t Need

Scout Niblett “Duke of Anxiety”

“Duke of Anxiety” is a cover of a Swearing At Motorists song from the mid-90s, but if you’ve heard this recording by Scout Niblett I do not recommend seeking it out as everything about it will sound totally wrong and half-assed in comparison to what she did with it. Niblett clearly heard the diamond in the rough and basically edited their song into something tighter and more refined, mostly cutting out all the ways Swearing At Motorists were sabotaging their own work. Crucially she removed everything about the original recording that served as a protective barrier for the singer and sang it with an unguarded, unapologetically wounded intensity that makes sense for a song sung from the perspective of an alcoholic at a low. Niblett sounds raw in her frustration and self-pity, see-sawing between defensiveness over her vices and eagerness to succumb to them. She sings like someone who’s lost hope in herself but is singing with some vague and possibly vain hope that in communicating all this to someone else they may intervene. It’s a rock bottom, and she sounds like she’s raising her hand up half-heartedly and waiting for someone to lift her up.

Buy it from Bandcamp.