Best albums of 2023: #3 The Veils “…And out of the void came love”

When I sat down to write this post, I was not a little bit flabbergasted to realize that this would make only the second time* that The Veils have appeared on these pages. Of course, it made more sense once I reasoned that it had been more than seven years since their last album, which was one year before I started My Life in Music Lists.

The Veils got their start way back in 2001 when a teenaged Finn Andrews was signed to Rough Trade Records and relocated back to his birthplace of London, England after growing up for the most part in New Zealand. He has been the group’s driving force and only static member, though they did have a pretty stable five-piece lineup for a decade or so between the mid-2000s and up to the release and tour cycle of their fifth album, 2016’s “Total depravity”. I had been a pretty rabid fan of the group, right after hearing their debut, espousing their virtues to all my friends and acquaintances, and featuring them regularly on my old blog, Music Insanity**.

I would go on about how Finn Andrews’ theatrical vocals and emotional songwriting and delivery really set The Veils apart from any other band, comparing his voice to that of a Rufus Wainwright or a young Lou Reed (before his voice went to seed) and his soul to that of Tom Waits or Nick Cave, or even an older Lou Reed. And all of these superlatives grew in stature when I saw them in 2007 for their tour supporting their 2006 album, “Nux Vomica”, and was blown away by the passion of Andrews and how he throws himself completely into the performance of his music.

To that point, Andrews broke his wrist while touring a solo album he had released in 2019 and he made it worse by deciding to finish out the tour. This meant for a much longer recovery in which he couldn’t tour or perform live. Instead, he spent the time resting and writing and recording by himself. Of course, the worldwide pandemic complicated things and extended their absence, but when The Veils finally resurfaced, now in 2023, it was with this magnificent double album and a whole new lineup of players backing the welcome return of an incredible songwriter and singular vocalist.

“…And out of the void came love” is an album of two thematic parts, meant to be listened to as such. It is recognizable as The Veils and their gothic and romantic take on folk and rock, still evoking Waits and Cave, but here there is more hope, a hint of a sunrise after a long dark night. I highly recommend you take the time give this one its due but my three picks for you can give a taste of what this return has to offer.

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“Epoch“: The second song on the second side of part/disc one, aka track number six, is an urgent and visceral explosion. Andrews holds court like a crazed ringmaster during the verses, shouting rather than singing them, rattling them off through an an invisible megaphone, tipping his hat, and dancing a jig and all the while drums clatter, the bass punishes, and guitars dance through feedback and threaten to fall out of tune. And when it comes to the chorus, all Andrews needs to do is repeat the same line, “I’ve seen it coming”, multiple times, but they’re just words, the meaning and emotion is different every time they escape his lips. It’s a vocal achievement and a trick of magic and you’re held rapt the whole time.

“Time”: This whole beast starts off with this nearly six minute piano-driven dirge that was released as a single on New Years Day 2023. It was written during the first lockdowns in New Zealand and reflects what I am sure a lot of us were feeling in the early days of the pandemic. The piano rolls interminably like the incessant ticking of a clock as it keeps you up in the early hours of the morning. It has the feeling of walking the tightrope of insanity. “Тіmе іѕ а dеvіl. Тіmе іѕ а rосk. Тіmе іѕ а rіddlе, nоnе оf uѕ саn unlосk.” It is Andrews playing in a realm of poetic lyricism, dragging us along with him through his range of emotions, and it is here, along with a number of other places on the album, that we can hear with almost perfectly clarify where all those comparisons to Nick Cave come from.

“No limits of stars”: The track that follows the last one then turns us all on our heads. If we think we’re getting and we think we want an album full of murder ballads like “Time”, we realize within the first few seconds of “No limit of stars” that we were dead wrong. “Well, it’s true the universe cares not how we all live and die. But there’s an element missing in that arrangement somehow, and I wondered why, in any way, we don’t live long, beneath no limit of stars.” It’s a rousing piece of existentialism, an exploration of our smallness in the face of infinity and expansion. And Andrews and his merry band of musicians punish us lovingly with a tune without quit. The drum beat doesn’t break and the haunting guitars and lonely keys match it breath for breath, heartache for heartache. It exists in a frozen place and time, as the second hand hesitates between notches just after midnight and the rest of the house is quiet, save for its settling creaks and groans. It is intense but perfectly so.

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*The only other The Veils post here is a ‘Vinyl love’ piece I did for their debut album four and half years ago.

**Part of the reason I was gobsmacked that they hadn’t appeared on this blog more to date, something I shall have to remedy, obviously.

We’ll be back after Christmas with album #2. In the meantime, here are the previous albums in this list:

10. Bodywash “I held the shape while I could”
9. Boygenius “The record”
8. Depeche Mode “Memento mori”
7. The Clientele “I am not there anymore”
6. Eyelids “A colossal waste of light”
5. Pale Blue Eyes “This house”
4. The Reds, Pinks and Purples “The town that cursed your name”

You can also check out my Best Albums page here if you’re interested in my other favourite albums lists.