Album Review: The Veils - 'Asphodels'
Asphodels by The Veils starts the year beautifully fresh and cold.
Feeling green and emergent like the flower in the album’s namesake, the album is filled with delicate melodies and orchestral sound. With six studio albums under their belt, it was interesting to see what The Veils would do next and us fans are thrilled the new tracks will be released so close to the last album (released in 2023). This is a hard right from what we’re used to from early days of The Veils. I would have described them to friends as a beautiful but sad rock band, sometimes with an eerie sound, a little off the beaten track to the usual indie/rock sound. I plugged ‘Lavinina’ hard on my MySpace profile back in the early to mid 2000s – I love their production as that gives their songs their atmospheres, evoking ethereal or otherworldly imagery in their music.
Their latest album, however, does not hold the anger or punchy strength from previous albums. It is stripped back a little, missing guitars. Comparing intro tracks from previous albums, there is a pattern of softening; ‘Axolotl’ from 2016’s ‘Total Depravity’ stirs alarm bells within you, and ‘Time’ from 2023’s ‘…And Out Of The Void Came Love’ starts slower with a piano and a much softer start, Finn Andrews’ conveying his trademark sadness and desperation in the first songs. This album is one step further into that softer, folkier type of music. This album opens with echoing Finn Andrews and a piano accompaniment that reminds me of old British country houses and bodies of still water. The Veils have sidestepped from their indie rock sound into similar sounds of Fleet Foxes and Grizzly Bear, but this is not a bad thing at all.
If I were to describe songs as images, our next two tracks continue to evoke pictures of an early dawn in the country continued into ‘O Fortune Teller’ for track 2, which I’ve had playing a few times along with ‘The Ladder’ since their release in November. Both feature beautiful harmonies with an accompaniment of piano, with ‘O Fortune Teller’. ‘The Sum’, similar in arrangement and pace, made me feel as if I was enjoying Whiskey somewhere and gave me the exact same feelings I get when I listen to Nick Cave, perhaps drawing on similar sounds. Following this comparison to Nick Cave, fans of Nick Cave or 2013 film ‘About Time’, track ‘A Land Beyond’ will feel even more familiarity from Andrews’ voice and the melody used. It has a homely, comforting feel.
Standout tracks in this carefully curated album were ‘Mortal Wound’ and ‘Melancholy Moon’, when there is a faster piano and a stronger percussion. ‘Mortal Wound’ was my favourite when it emerged on my third play through, the string and heavy drum beat impossible to ignore and I found myself singing along. This will be the one I long for at the live shows, the song that makes you forget where you are and what you’re doing when you stop and listen to it. The violin is beautiful and I was reminded for yet another album how much I love the arrangements in their music. Despite the title, ‘Melancholy Moon’ is a happy song and it’s repeated piano phrases and catchy beat have you tapping your foot. I feel it’s only a matter of time before one of these songs is snapped up for a soundtrack somewhere.
This album is like the ballad during a musical – it is perhaps slower or softer compared to the punchy opening number but the ballad is often the song that is the most appreciated and remembered for the emotions instilled in the audience. This is a great show of musicality, as artists it is always appreciated when they can instil a larger range of emotions within us rather than sticking with the same sound. I hope I will have the privilege to see these played live at a piano!
Words by Jemma Sharpe
