I have spent a total of 1 week with this Spectral Dusk album. Okay, it has been about 5 days. So who am I to say it is one of the best of the year? Really…5 days.
Evening Hymns are no secret to me, their previous album Spirit Guides had a few spins in the old Slowcoustic HQ but still this album kinda came out of nowhere. I mean I had heard rumblings (all favourable…almost too favourable, ya know?) but I still didn’t listen until this past weekend. The music grabbed me immediately – maybe it was familiar or maybe it was just plain good. I can’t separate myself from it now. The track You And Jake floored me at first listen…well eased me down gently, but you get what I am saying.
I don’t even really know how to describe what Evening Hymns sound like. I mean, I want to say an organic, earthy, sombre, indie…the descriptors all are fine to attach but one isn’t enough. The timbre of Jonas Bonnetta’s vocals ebb and flow so seamlessly with these hymns he calls songs it becomes an instrument in itself (I know a tired cliche but alas). Along with flecks and accents of who I believe to be Sylvie Smith this album finds homes in ears, heads and hearts instantly.
The lead off track Arrows is the real opener to the album and that heartbeat and radio echo vocals lays the path out before you for Spectral Dusk. Tell me you are not drawn forward into the meat of these stories after listening to it? Try to tell me. I thought not.
And how about a video for good measure? The video is for the song Family Tree and it is one not to be taken lightly and unfortunately is possibly more common to many families these days than it should be. Destruction of a family from within never sounded (or looked) so sweet, if I had to say.
Evening Hymns have released Spectral Dusk as an opus. It is big enough to be outside your grasp and yet intimate enough to clutch it close. Another cliche right? Once again though, it is the truth.
Find Evening Hymns: Website | Bandcamp | Facebook |
~Smansmith