I have known of She Keeps Bees for a couple of years (mostly due to her connection to Sharon Van Etten – search out the song ‘Cuddle Alone‘ they do together) and always enjoyed her work.  Then comes this album Eight Houses and it hits me like the tonne of bricks those houses are made of.  The album is achingly beautiful, a bit groovy, a bit folk, gritty and fragile…it is hard to fully describe – this album has layers.  Think 90s Concrete Blonde mixed with late 2000s Feist.  Maybe.  The first song that caught me was the video release for the closing track on the album, Is What It Is.  While the art-house styled video is good, the song is stunning:

She Keeps Bees – Is What It Is from Future Gods on Vimeo.

The rest of the album falls in line (and a touch outside the lines) from that track.  I mean, you think you have this album pegged and then the track Greasy Grass or maybe even Both Sides drops and you might think you have stumbled into the rock remix version of the album – but it works.  Stand out songs from Eight Houses include Feather Lighter, Owl, Radiance, Is What It Is, Wasichu and hell, it is a full album listen and that really means something these days.

Right?  Right?  This album just may find it’s way to the prestigious “Favourite Albums of 2014” around these parts.

The album is released next week via Future Gods (and the whole thing is streaming via their Soundcloud page!).

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~Sandy