Ramona Gonzales’ lo-fi bedroom recording project turned avant-pop sensation, Nite Jewel, is just weeks away from the release of her fourth full-length album on her own imprint Gloriette Records, Real High. The soft tongued Gonzales has undergone many an iteration under her Nite Jewel pseudonym; starting with the fuzzily dreary art-pop found on her debut 2009 LP Good Evening, which buried her soulful refrain in gauzy synths and recording static, to last year’s Liquid Cool, in which Gonzales more than hit her vocal stride; letting those melancholic reverberations sit front and center amongst her husband and producer Cole M.G.N.’s subdued, polished production. Thus far, we’ve been treated to two singles (and videos) from Real High (“2 Good 2 Be True”, “The Answer”) and today we’ve been gifted a third in the form of the album’s title track, and we’re more than perked up towards her latest offering
“I’m looking for a real high and a real low, isn’t that the way love goes?”, coos Gonzales on “Real High”, perhaps unveiling the long-player’s central thesis in the process. Through the bits and pieces that so far have fallen from Real High, we get the feeling that the album as a whole will dive into this twisted paradigm, and we’re ready to fall right in along with Ramona & Co. Nite Jewel are simultaneously harnessing down for their first US tour in 5 years (see dates here), and you can bet the Ninja faithful will be there with her in a city near you. Until then, listen and watch the visual accompaniment to “Real High” below.
