The Veils is an indie/rock band fronted by English/New Zealand singer songwriter Finn Andrews. ‘Asphodels’ is the seventh full-length LP album from The Veils and named after the Ancient Greek flower of the Underworld. It’s an album of self-reflection and private reckoning which draws from poets like Federico García Lorca, Ted Hughes, and Louis MacNeice. The nine songs shared were also written in collaboration with string arranger Victoria Kelly. Finn Andrews says: “this is an album about love and death. I’m very proud of it, and I hope it might provide you with the same solace and insight that it has so generously afforded me.”
We are introduced to the album via title track `Asphodels` with stripped back vocals and piano keys leading us through a quite haunting introspective musing. There`s a similar evocative feel to `O Fortune Teller` but with strings added. A number which relays a tale of visiting a clairvoyant with a nervous apprehension but not wanting too much to be revealed.
`The Ladder` has piano, a brushed drum and strings along with harmonised vocals which affords more depth and grants a less stark atmosphere. The number for me almost depicted The River Styx, a river in Greek mythology that separates the living from the dead and the ladder a bridge between these two worlds. The impermanence of existence seems to be expressed in a kind of rationalised pragmatic viewpoint on the illusory `The Dream of Life`.
Although the title of `Mortal Wound` may conjure a pessimistic consequence of a fatal or lethal blow this offering is wonderfully upbeat with vocal harmonies, piano keys and strings giving it an expansive vision about seeing beauty in the world, an undying pledge of love along with the restorative powers of love. The singer has said that “This is a song about the quietly held hope that love is fundamentally a healing force,” There`s a deeper vocal resonance on `The Sum` which sounded as if we had intruded on the singer`s innermost thoughts.
I felt that `Melancholy Moon` was almost an ironic title as it was probably the most up-tempo number on the album with a tapping drum, piano keys, and a percussive beat. Lyrically it appeared to be searching for higher meaning, maybe exploring the primary, intrinsic motivation of human beings. A tinkling piano mirrors the sound of rain as orchestrated strings join on `Concrete After Rain` a thoughtful maybe symbolic interpretation on simple observations having greater life significances.
The meditative and absorbing `A Land Beyond` eases us out of this release with a sparse piano and expressive vocal contemplating eternal life and immortality possibly.
Although running at just over thirty minutes, `Asphodels` packs so much in with poetic, expressive and moving lyrical content and music which is both graceful and elegant although the subject matter is immersed in existential themes.
A release that will touch your body, mind, spirit, and soul.
Rating 9/10
