Comprising the celebrated Emily Barker, whose had W&H support for some years now, alongside Dom Coyote and Ruben Engzell, Vena Portae describe their sound as alt-folk. It hardly seems entirely fitting for a group naming themselves after a vein that transports blood to the liver, and the music isn’t of the sort that’s likely to get the blood pumping either.
The liltingly melodic country pop of lead single ‘Summer Kills’ isn’t so much alt, and the banjos and harmonicas that feature so prominently in the instrumentation are pretty straightforward. It’s nicely played and the compositions are sweet but rather standard. The sparse instrumentation of ‘Turning Key’ and ‘Transatlantic’ place the melodic vocals to the fore, and again it’s nice, gentle on the ear and technically faultless but… There’s nothing that really pulls on the heartstrings or stirs the emotions. Or maybe I’m just cold. That could be on account of the chilly theme that runs through the album.
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It’s August, and it’s sweltering inside and out, and here I am listening to an album that has recurring winter themes (and depicts the band standing in thick coats in a snow-whitened woodland). Oceanic motifs also feature, notably on ‘The Mapless Sea’, ‘Stingrays’ and the aforementioned ‘Transatlantic’, filling the album with wistful melancholy that somehow fails to create sufficient emotional pull to make it a great record.
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