Ninå – Truth or Dare (Single Review)

‘Truth or Dare’ is the latest single by singer-songwriter Ninå. It will form part of her upcoming Album, called ‘Bloom with Fire’. This sounds like an album of strength and personal meaning.

This single is a confident and understated presentation of a great song, which revolves around her excellent vocal performance. She has a wonderfully sophisticated vocal sound; buttery smooth, warm lower tones and a silky edge to it. She doesn’t overwork her vocals either, letting the lyrics themselves do a lot of the work in conveying the meaning and emotion of the song.

The effect is an effortless and confident vocal performance. I really believe the authenticity and story of the lyrics behind this song. It’s a mid-tempo soulful ballad that makes a really pleasant listen for anyone.

The track has a remarkably simple composition and instrumentation, too, leaving plenty of space for the vocals to take centre stage. Bravely, the song intro features just two guitars in the mix, accompanied by plenty of wet reverb. This is subtle and effective. I appreciate the matched reverb on the drums, too, when they come in. It’s all professionally recorded, mixed and mastered.

The song format is standard and accessible, with a nice but not overdramatic lift at the choruses: this is nicely supported with a shaker and lovely pad of backing vocals. The chorus is not fussy, and the result is: I believe what shes saying. The middle section offers a good build-up and showcases Ninå’s higher range, which is flawless in maintaining that lovely tone, right at the top. The post-chorus offers nice decompression sonically, so the whole track feels quite comfortable in pace and spacing.

There is a welcome electric guitar solo after chorus two: It’s perfectly executed and appropriate for the song, but maybe a tad safe. A little more attitude would have made me smile.

I’m feeling hints of Rag n Bone Man/Teddy Swims Soul choices on production, but here it is with a beautifully smooth female vocal. Think the simplicity and strength of Nora Jones in a vocal performance to a Teddy Swims production. It’s a really good mix.

I really enjoyed the backing vocals on Truth or Dare: particularly the second post-chorus, where it’s in call and response with the main vocal. It feels a little more playful, with some harmonies pop out nicely. There’s an interesting instrumentation (is it slightly fragmented keys with hard limiters on?) in the first post-chorus. It’s warm and soft, percussive, and offers a nice ‘lift’ here.

The lyrics are direct and impactful. They’re really honest, and I love the accent! It makes her sound really distinctive.

I think there were intentional and right choices made about the simplicity of this track. The end product is sincere. The track length is 03:20, which is a solid standard, but I do feel the song ends quite quickly. A personal preference would have been to lengthen the song with an outro: maybe match it to the song opening, or be more creative and playful with new sounds and textures (Hammond organ? Tambourine? Another guitar counter melody? Drier accapella Backing vocals? Add an outtake from the electric guitar solo?). I reckon her backing vocals are beautiful accapella. As it’s all about that distinctive vocal tone, I’d stamp that distinction all over her work as an up-and-coming artist even more.

SCORE/Good to Excellent: Overall, this is a clever track in not over-complicating an idea, instead using minimal production and instrumentation to portray a feeling in its purest form. Whilst I’m impressed and enjoying the sound, I am not emotionally moved much by the song, which is why it missed the ‘Excellent’ rating. More originality in instrumentation would have got it there.

However, this is a masterfully simple, engaging, authentic, and professionally executed track, and I wish Ninå all the best with her career. I’ll certainly know when it’s her future tracks playing on the radio because of those beautiful vocals! A highly enjoyable song, I am looking forward to hearing more of her album.

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

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