Tag: Niia Pianos and Great Danes

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Niia Shares Two Previously Unreleased Tracks off “V (Goth Jazz Edition)”

Born Niia Bertino, Niia is a Needham, MA-born, Los Angeles-based classically trained composer, pianist and vocalist. Deeply rooted in jazz, her work blends elegance, edge and a timeless voice with razor-sharp, seemingly lived-in songwriting. Her fifth album, last year’s Spencer Zahn co-produced V was the culmination of years spent experimenting at the intersection of tradition and reinvention.

Existing in the tension between control and collapse, V saw the acclaimed Los Angeles-based artist seamlessly blending the electronic textures of contemporary, experimental pop with the interplay of live, jazz-rooted instrumentation and musicianship. The album’s arrangements stretch — sometimes restrained, sometimes theatrical– but always with intention. As a classically trained musician, who grew up watching Italian cinema, Bertino explains, “I pulled from the harmonic language of jazz pianists like Bill Evans and from the psychological atmosphere of film scores.” 

Arguably, one of Bertino’s most personal albums to date, V thematically explores the full spectrum of the self — self-harm, self-delusion, self-awareness and in rare moments, self-love. “Not in a moralizing way, but in a very human one,” she adds. “The good and bad live side by side, often in the same verse. One minute I’m performing heartbreak like it’s a role I’ve rehearsed, the next I’m quietly admitting I caused the whole thing. That contradiction is the truth.”

The album featured “Pianos and Great Danes,” which I wrote about on this site.

Last week, Bertino released V (Goth Jazz Edition), a deluxe edition of her acclaimed fifth album through Candid Records. V (Goth Jazz Edition) features three bonus tracks, a cover of Chet Baker‘s “I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes) and two, previously unreleased tracks “Been A Long Night” and Show Me Love.” “There were a few directions on the album that I still wanted to explore a little deeper, and these new songs felt so connected to the world of V that they really wouldn’t have made sense anywhere else,” Niia says of the deluxe edition of V.

“Been A Long Night” features an intricate, jazz-driven arrangement of broodingly cinematic piano and a supple yet propulsive bass line with skittering drum ‘n bass-meets footwork-styled beats beneath the acclaimed Los Angeles-based artist’s yearning delivery. While being both club and lounge friendly, “Been A Long Night” is rooted in a late-night longing and desire that’s simultaneously fun and a little dangerous.

“Show Me Love” is a slow-burning, gorgeous, Quiet Storm-like tune that showcases Niia’s effortlessly soulful, pop star vocal confessing a desire to wholly accept and love while asking her lover to show some much-needed vulnerability. “Show Me Love” may arguably be the deluxe edition’s most straightforward yet earnest tune.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Niia Shares Mesmerizing, Genre-Defying “Pianos and Great Danes”

Born Niia Bertino, Niia is a Needham, MA-born, Los Angeles-based classically trained composer, pianist and vocalist. Deeply rooted in jazz, her work blends elegance, edge and a timeless voice with razor-sharp, seemingly lived-in songwriting. Bertino’s previously released work has received praise from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Interview Magazine, and Harper’s Bazaar.

The Los Angeles-based artist’s recently released, fifth album, the Spencer Zahn co-produced V is the culmination of years spent experimenting at the intersection of tradition and reinvention. Existing in the tension between control and collapse, V sees her seamlessly bending the electronic textures of contemporary, experimental pop with the interplay that live, jazz-rooted musicianship. The album’s arrangements stretch — sometimes restrained, sometimes theatrical– but always with intention. As a classically trained musician, who grew up watching Italian cinema, Bertino explains, “I pulled from the harmonic language of jazz pianists like Bill Evans and from the psychological atmosphere of film scores.”

Arguably, one of Bertino’s most personal albums to date, V thematically explores the full spectrum of the self — self-harm,. self-delusion, self-awareness and in rare moments, self-love. “Not in a moralizing way, but in a very human one,” she adds. “The good and bad live side by side, often in the same verse. One minute I’m performing heartbreak like it’s a role I’ve rehearsed, the next I’m quietly admitting I caused the whole thing. That contradiction is the truth.”

V‘s latest single “Pianos and Great Danes” is a mesmerizing and mind-bending mix of propulsive, rave-inspired drum ‘n’ bass grooves, piano-driven jazz, experimental pop and soul that captures its narrator’s desperately unhinged psychological state with an uncanny precision, while being remarkably cinematic. Thematically exploring sex as an escape, Bertino says the song is “closer to a film score than anything from the Great American Songbook,” Niia says.

“Written like a monologue with chord changes, it leans into space and narrative, letting the harmony suggest the emotional shifts,” she continues. “Embracing emotional residue, there’s a chaotic feeling where the only way out is to melt through the track.”