I love The Veils, and credit an awesomely awesome former flatmate with introducing me to them. Like everything they do, this is a fascinating, challenging EP.
The contrast between the depth and fullness of opener 'Bloom' (which is probably most faithful to what I'd consider The Veils traditional sound, if they have such a thing) and the second track, 'Don't Let the Same Bee Sting You Twice' - which is a deliberately low-fi, bare kind of sound - is remarkable. The truly interesting thing about is that while the contrast is almost shocking, it works fantastically. And the cleverness of this juxtaposition (and indeed of this band) is that I couldn't decide which of these two markedly different sounds I liked better.
The third track is an upbeat poppy sort of number but retains interesting almost rough guitars overlaid with a cheerful synth. It is delightful. And the all of a sudden 'The Wishbone' returns to the darker, deeper sound that the EP opens with. I bet these guys listened to a lot of Radiohead growing up.
'Don't Let the Same Bee..' vies with the distinctly kiwi 'Grey Lynn Park' - a short, textured, interesting song - for my favourite track. The album is rounded out with the delicate 'Us Godless Teenagers', bare vocals, gentle acoustic guitar, built up with background strings.
A contemporary, interesting listen. The only complaint I have about this EP is that it's not a full-length album. Still, quality over quantity, eh?
No comments:
Post a Comment