In reviewing The Veils’s 2009 album ‘Sun Gangs’ I wrote “Finn Andrews is an unquiet soul who has some dark dreams and plenty of demons to be exorcised.”
Sixteen years on, and now on their seventh studio album, the shadows lurking over the lead singer do not appear to have entirely lifted. If anything they have become more menacing.
Now that 20 years have elapsed since his band’s debut album, existential dread can be added to the list of things to worry about. Having signed to Rough Trade when he was just 16 years old, there was the added stress of expectation in the early years but in a recent interview for Dutch TV Andrews spoke of feeling more relaxed now as an artist albeit still given to feelings of restlessness.
Album titles are revealing. In 2016, The Veils stood for ‘Total Depravity’ but by 2023 the slough of despond had sufficiently lifted in time for the release of ‘….And Out of the Void Came Love’.
‘Asphodels’ takes its name from the Greek lily which in ancient mythology is associated with death and the underworld. It’s the poetic sense which one should take from this rather than any darkly despairing fear of non-being. The title song which opens the record, is about the continuing spiritual quest for meaning and begins with the lines ”Through the wood I walked /And barely made my way /Before I heard the muffled words / That led me so astray.”
A track like The Dream of Life, my personal favourite, is shrouded in the burden of mortality but this comes with acceptance in the joys that can be embraced in our fleeting existence: “How brief the dream of life / But how sweet the dream of life /And to complete the dream of life /Well, everything must die.” Andrews admits “I really just write about love and death - it’s a compulsion.”
‘Asphodels’ was recorded live to tape over five days at Roundhead Studios in Aotearoa New Zealand.
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With no record label backing, Andrews produced it himself. With a brief 30 minute playing time the emphasis is on quality over quantity.
The nine songs are mainly piano ballads although these are mostly fleshed out to great effect by marvellous string arrangements courtesy of Victoria Kelly. Andrews says : It’s this collaboration with Vic that is really at the centre of this record I think.”
The sparseness of The Sum (just voice and piano) has lyrics about the ”ocean of hurt” and in Melancholy Moon Andrews sings of a ”world of ash and flame.”. But even with such sobering words, these songs are sufficed with harmony and hopefulness.
O Fortune Teller is about the uncertainty over what the future may bring and concludes that on the whole it’s better not to know. The Ladder suggests any escape routes come from within rather than from faith in known unknowns.
Comparisons with Nick Cave are inevitable and Mortal Wound is the most Cave-like piece; a love song which is also about the transience of life yet still ”alive with the beauty of existence.
Finn Andrews may be tormented still but this album shines with beauty and joy. As the poet Adrian Mitchell wrote “The world is falling to pieces but some of the pieces taste good.”
The Veils’s website
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