Ninå – Bloom With Fire (Album Review)

‘Bloom with Fire’ is a record full of catchy, well-written songs and clean, thoughtful studio production. The 10 tracks hold together as a collective incredibly well, making ‘Bloom with Fire’ a fine craft in studio album production. Nina is presented upfront with strong, clean vocals, introducing familiar song concepts with novelty in her songwriting, but has polished each track with genres spanning from rock, 90’s pop, American punk-pop etc. Good thought has gone into focusing on song elevation with production, making each track really shine and stand alone. It’s accomplished, thoughtful, and each song: distinctive. Let’s look in detail.

Track one intends to grab the listener hard! The titular track, ‘Bloom with fire’ is a full energy pop-rock number that drives forward distorted guitar chords and a clean, full drum kit. Ninas singing really exemplifies her impressive range here, with her tone staying as clean as ever, right to the top notes. The song gives great energy to open with. Given Ninas vocal versatility, this could have been overworked into the rock genre with more distortion, filters, buzz and crackle, but as with a lot of the record, instead walks a clever tightrope back into a clean pop sound. Production is left simple and open to let Ninas voice, and lyrics really lift up and out. I love how it ends halfway through a line, which leaves a perfect amount of suspense to continue the listen….

Next is ‘If it Hurts, its Real’ which opens with an acoustic guitar, hand clicks on the third beat, and a sung vocal riff that wouldn’t sound out of place in a teen pop/rock track. For me, the vocal riff is not needed, and gives too much Americana vibes: if this riff was played on another instrument, it might keep that sophisticated feel better. Nina offers another heartfelt, authentic, grown-up perspective on heartbreak, with really strong melodies for the verse, chorus and bridge. Easily singable, this is a real feel-good track. However, it is placed second in this record, and I think this isn’t the strongest track to be occupying the best spot.

Third, we have ‘Louder Than My Past’ which  keeps the high energy vibe with palm muted guitars again and a nice roar of open chords to energise the ends of the sung lines. Another really strong songwriting example: the longer bridge leading into the Chorus is excellent prosody and synchronicity between chords, melody, lyrics. The Chorus is really good fun to sing along with, and I love the vocal climb up over the lines. By track 3, were settling into a familiar pop-rock production. I do wish the clap sample in the acapella chorus was a little more realistic to meet the well played guitars and drums. Were halfway to a ‘live production’ here, and I would have pushed the ‘band’ feel to the max with everything recorded by hand. But production aside, this is a massive song, due to that fun, catchy chorus.

Its time for a more ballad style song, so track 4 is ‘I learned to Sing Again’ led by piano this time. This is a welcome pace change from the previous three songs, and offers a heartfelt song presented with a full instrumental production, including strings to set the tone. The drum kit is not needed in the first verse: instrumentation could be built up a lot slower. This is a beautiful track, but it requires more dynamic range to really bring the listener on an emotional journey throughout. A more gentle compressor on the vocals would help. Yes this is record-based concepts of growth, power and strength, but it’s a progression, and I want to hear more vulnerability at the start. The ending offers this with the piano outro well.

At the next track, we see a transition in production to focus more on electronic elements. Track 5 is ‘Before the Lights Hit Me’. A mid-tempo track with a darker feel created through synth layers and strong kick pedal throughout. The full backing vocals (plus male voices) work really well on this track. Nina can certainly sing in a lower keys too! A good mid-record track that builds to more creative bridge, two-thirds through the song. It could have taken some electric guitar to add sparkle throughout.

The next track is an unexpected favourite. Staying in a more midi production lane, we have ‘Lay Your Hand In Mine’. The way the song starts is simple and yet brilliant: gentle plucked electric guitar, low string pads, and then a beautiful late 90’s drum pattern overlays this ballad. The track offers more reverb and space for the lower, warm vocal verses to sit within. The bridge gives way to a really strong chorus that ticks all the boxes of repetition, sonic lift, and emotional urgency. I love the airy feel of this track and the reverb on Nina’s vocals. The guitar solo offers a good chewy sound and plenty of attitude, progressing the track further.  It’s a brilliant combination, and I could listen to a whole album of this ilk of song.

Next is a really strong number in the track: ‘Truth or Dare’. I would have put this second on the record, as it feels like it holds the most pure DNA of Nina’s sound in it. The verses offer lots of space, confidently leaving the acoustic guitar and drum kit to hold the song together. Production is kept simple again, with nice vocal padding allowing a natural swelling around the ‘to point’ lyrics. Nina’s voice takes on more intimacy in the lower tones. It’s a beautifully presented, simple song, done really well.

Next we have ‘Lipstick on Broken Glass’, which keeps the full drum kit and palm muted guitar, gentle swelling synth layers supporting a nice open verse. This song feels slightly caught been needing a ‘lift’ between song sections, and specialising in driving continuity hard, via a hard repetitive drum pattern (think ‘As it Was’ – Harry Styles). The song is threaded together with nice electric guitar solo elements, which it almost leans on, but I think more work could have been put into the intentionality of the song’s construction.

Next, Ashes (Burning Letters) offers a more classic lift between vocal sections, with a clear, catchy chorus which is repeated a good number of times. I think towards the end, more of a build could have been created in the production, but the songwriting is so strong that its barely negligible. This track uses more filtering on the voice to give a bit more dynamic depth, which works really well.

The final track on the record is ‘I’m Alive’, which continues a more synth-based production. On reflection, the production and song feel have gone on their own journey from the first track, ‘Bloom with Fire’. The verse feels quite similar in feel to that of ‘Truth or Dare’, but thankfully, the chorus proves that Nina has plenty of ideas left in the tank with a catchy, strong, and novel vocal line. This track almost feels like a rebirth, and Nina could have mixed this concept into a gothic slant by pushing those beautiful backing vocals higher in the mix: I want to imagine this being sung in a sacred space. A great ending to the album to reference back to ‘Bloom with Fire’. All Ninas songs are both catchy and yet unique, written for music lovers of any genre who just appreciate a well-written song.

Overall, Nina shows herself a powerhouse of writing, really catchy songs. Her voice is uniquely identifiable in its clean, professional and accurate delivery. Next, I would play with more dynamics to her performance and see what additional colours can be found, to help portray the breadth of emotion in her written work, whether this be in microphone placement, input volume, singing volume, compression, or production tools. As a listener, I don’t just want impeccable singing, I want Ninas vulnerability: this is an area to develop, and in doing so, will give a bigger admiration for brilliant belting notes that she already shows.  Her songs are already excellent in a timeless way, but to achieve ‘outstanding’, she needs to show a depth of novelty in song presentation that pushes boundaries, my imagination, or my emotions, even harder.

SCORE/Excellent:  In this record, Nina has shown confidence in blending between a more ‘band’ format in instrumentation and electronic components. In both, she shows restraint in letting the writing and singing come to the fore, resulting in this sophisticated style of delivery. I believe all her lyrics, her sage advice buried within, and her experiences presented: there is a huge lyrical connection here. This is grown-up, accomplished pop, and I hope she continues to dare to develop her style even further.

[We rank singles, EP’s, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent and Outstanding]

Artist: Ninå
Release date: March 12, 2026
Genre: Pop / Pop-Rock / Soul-influenced contemporary pop

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