The Independent Over four albums, she's pared down her song-poem style to a point where skeletal surfaces only need to hint at her characters' back-stories for impact. She doesn't overburden their tales with analysis or self-pity: instead, she anatomises the emotions at stake with needlepoint precision. **** Mojo These intimate hushes and lilts would be remarkable even as instrumentals.... Yet it's Nastasia's voice--and the words that it sings--that really sucks the air out of the room. **** Trembles with intensity. There's a clarity and truth to the way these songs sound that allow [Nastasia] to steer from joy to grief deftly and directly. Uncut Spare, beautiful, outstanding. **** Q Magazine Curiously compelling for something so minimal, it's like nothing else around. **** The Guardian Delicate songs with unexpected, unnerving strength. **** New York Times Best Of Ms. Nastasia's songs reach back to the staples - waltzes and ballads, love and death - for music that verges on parables, set to a porchful of unplugged instruments. Filter Her countrified songs often begin as gothic lullabies, swallowed up in darkness and longing, as if the instruments themselves were suffering heartbreak. The Observer Matter of fact, subdued in the face of travails that somehow contrive to sound awesome and ancient, however sordid and modern they are. Riveting. Stylus Magazine Nastasia's pen has sharpened greatly since The Blackened Air. No more does she scratch out mental images and feelings into terse songs, but builds upon those images and experiences -- placing the listener in her worn, ragged shoes -- instead of in our Gucci's, 20 feet away, behind a chained link fence. Village Voice Music that is intricate, dreamlike and inspired. CMJ Monthly Each spin of the record is like witnessing an intimate performance with her seven piece band. Entertainment Weekly This New Yorker's remarkable second disc - a fresher,less affected effort than virtually anything from trad-country revivalists. Pulse Completely enrapturing, crackling with a rare energy and unbending assurance played out in unexpected melodic twists and breathtaking performances by Nastasia's band. Outburn A beautiful album of uniqueness and unfailing spirit. ShakingThrough.net What keeps Nastasia from succumbing to grotesque melodrama is the razor-like incisiveness she brings to her lyrics. All Music Guide Whatever spaces the arrangements leave enable the imagination to play as much of a role as the instrumentation. Amazon.com The more Nastasia withdraws into her own world, the more attractive her music becomes. Flak Magazine Usually quiet though never passive, these songs lurch by, crowning, crowing, being cowed. Pitchfork The most striking improvement is her singing. She's a stronger vocalist, her almost-plain tone rising into higher registers, and her usual range has grown more earthily gorgeous. But more than anything, she demonstrates a new expressiveness. PopMatters By exposing the production devices and disrupting easy identification, Albini and Nastasia force intellectual engagement rather than mere reflexive emotional connection. Splendid Nastasia's gaze is still directed inwards, obsessed with the vivid minute imagery of relationships and an increasing dark streak -- a still-blackening air. Junkmedia Albini captures a recording full of heart, a sound quiet and full, rough and clear. Neumu.net Where The Blackened Air sounded haunting, Run to Ruin sounds downright haunted, and, indeed, it's got moments filled with menace and chords written to make you feel uncomfortable. Rolling Stone What gives the album life, though, is Nastasia's airy, intimate voice. ......[Read Less]