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Nux Vomica

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The Veils are doing a pretty good job of obscuring the lines between genres -- is their second album: A. classic metal, B. Britpop, or C. wild weird indiepop?

Answer: D, all of the above. This New Zealand band has a new lineup and a new sound, not to mention the kind of renewed energy that bands rarely have on their sophomore album. And in "Nux Vomica" they tear through different musical genres, with brilliantly raw results.

"It looks an ugly world out there/Of girl-guides and disease and war/I love my little velvet bed/I never want to leave it anymore," howls Finn Andrews in the opening song. "All my fears will come to me in dreams/Maybe the end ain't as far as it seems/Not yet revived but not yet mourned/Not quite denied just not yet born..."

The song he's singing changes several times as it plays -- it starts off as a some of folksy ballad, but them blooms out into an eerie synthy hard-rocker, and then into as sort of piano-edged metal. And over it all, he's wailing, "I TRIIIIIIIIIIED.... I TRIIIIIIED..." By the end of it, I was dizzy.

Things don't get any less colourful with the songs that follow. Each one seems to give a new spin on indie-rock -- flavoured with calliope, soulfully edged with soaring voices, ominous and distorted, smashing alt-rock, twinkly hard-rockers. They even work in a ballad, "Under The Folding branches," which is an exquisite little shimmer of strings and piano.

The Veiils are apparently trying to wring every last drop of inspiration from their music -- they smush classic indie-rock, moments of hard-rock and metal, with driving Britpop edges. And it all serves as the frame for Andrews' songs of uncertainty and sorrow.

The music is a swirl of hard-edged guitar and bass, and sometimes they explode into eruptions of pure hard rock. But the raw instrumentals are laced with some tinkly piano and shimmering keyboard, and Lou Reed collaborator Jane Scarpontoni weaves in some beautiful string arrangements as well. Some songs are catchy, some are fast-paced, but all of them are wonderfully layered.

But they all have a feeling of mild sadness and confusion, and that gets reflected in the songs as well. Andrews seems to be asking "what's the point? What's ahead of us?", and reflecting on the decay of the world. And he sings it in a sort of Robert Plant manner, howling with devastating power -- but he can also switch to the bittersweet murmur of a ballad.

Good thing the Veils changed their lineup and sound, because "Nux Vomica" is a painful, exquisite rock album that deserves to be heard. Definitely one of the best of 2007 thus far.

A few thoughts about this great little album I've seen no media reaction to, sadly:

Having luckily found out about The Veils years ago thanks to the ever-helpful Thomas Bartlett (formerly found for the past three years at [...] Wednesday Morning Download/Audiofile section) recommending their neverendingly gorgeous song "Lavinia," I've been a pretty avid and constant follower of their music ever since. It's tough to divine information from the usually-reliable internet about The Veils at times, but well over a year ago, the band broke up after their basically brilliant and fully-formed debut, The Runaway Found. Finn Andrews, son of an XTC founder and the mastermind behind all the music, most likely, soon recreated the band with some old mates, pairing down the sound to something raw and more immediate and piano-driven, as opposed to the full-band, guitar-attack, drum-intensive sound from the debut. Happily, the gamble paid off, at least creatively (when the heck is this album going to see a US release?).

Andrews has a voice that SOME people say is an acquired taste, but I find it endlessly fascinating. Hopefully, you'll give it a real chance because it's a rich, emotive, and flexible instrument, though it might require some patience if you're used to, you know, some other sort of music that doesn't require anything. Thematically, there's a lot of theological rage found in the lyrics, and this is echoed by the, at times, angry and frantic vocal work (see "Jesus For the Jugular"). As I said, the piano is nearly omnipresent, and it is put to good use throughout. This doesn't stop the electric and acoustic guitars from taking the stage either, mind you. Nor has Andrews' sparkling sense of melody waned in the least.

In short, this record is a pretty big leap from the original, a conscious effort to create a totally new sound with new bandmates while still giving Veils fans a sense of familiarity somehow. I imported this the very moment I found out it was FINALLY available after such a long wait, and I've not been let down a bit by it. One might look around a bit because one can find the record cheaper than the ridiculous import price listed above, but Veils fans might not be too unhappy were they forced to pay the premium.

But the record, tell some friends about them, enjoy.

Key Tracks to sample on a wholly good album:

- The epic-sounding "Nux Vomica"

- The gentle "Under the Folding Branches"

- The pulse-pounding "Pan"

- The ringing and beautiful "A Birthday Present"

Is this a Brit pop band? A New Zealand heavy metal stomp outfit? The latest chamber rock wunderkind in the mold of the Arcade Fire and Okkervil River? The Veils are all these things, and a bit more. The Kiwi lead singer, who sounds like a mix of Robert Plant and the dude who fronts the Violent Femmes (really, stay with me here), growls and emotes over piano, high-hat heavy drums and aggressive guitar. But how did these guys get so adept at pop, anthems, what sounds like American southern rock boogies and heart-wrenching love ballads? America hasn't heard of these guys, but when this CD comes out in April, I trust they will...the Veils are, to quote Hank Williams, Sr., "wild and blue."

New Zealand collective the Veils have always been a front, a smokescreen for the roiling mess of emotions that make up singer/lyricist Finn Andrews and his nakedly emotional, often abrasive tales. He's the kind of obsessive frontman who writes all the songs, directs everyone how to play, and truly becomes the soul of the band; it should come as no surprise, then, that Nux Vomica, the Veils' sophomore effort, features an entirely new cast of backing musicians than their debut did. Perhaps even more importantly, it features Andrews (son of Barry Andrews of `80s power-popsters XTC) doing what he does best: emoting exactly what he feels, as dramatically and as powerfully as possible. One would think all this single-minded input would lead the Veils' to become a bit stale. On the contrary, however, Nux Vomica is Andrews' shining achievement, a tightly focused, poetic work that establishes Andrews' as a gifted songwriter in his own right and perhaps one of the most impassioned performers in rock today.

With The Runaway Found, the Veils seemed too attuned to major label interests, writing songs that yearned for radio airplay but in the process tended to suffocate Andrews' outsized ego and combustible personality. It's immediate right from the opening howl of "Not Yet," however, that Andrews isn't going to restrain himself this go around. A Western-tinged rollercoaster of sliding guitars and rollicking drums led on by Andrews' fiery vocals, it's an appropriate opening thesis for Nux Vomica, telling the kind of literate story and twisted metaphors that Andrews long ago mastered with wild instrumental fervor. Andrews has never been one to be subtle ("Not Yet," after all, could either be read as a struggle with indecisiveness or the tale of a young boy discovering sexuality via his mother), and his extravagant vocal stylings make that readily apparent.

The Veils' have often been compared to the Bad Seeds, both for their musical approach and lyrical attitude, and Andrews' vocals even call to mind Nick Cave, with a little bit of young, intelligible Tom Waits thrown in for good measure. It's a potent if sometime caustic combination, and it makes for a number of songs that would fit right at home on the alternative end of the FM dial: the Celtic hue of "Calliope!," where arching strings and lively drums highlight one of the band's most straightforward love songs, and the gender-flipped confessional of "Advice for Young Mothers To Be," full of pleasant "oohs-aahs," female backing vocals, and tragic lyrics that belie the tone, are the most obvious ones.

But it's when Andrews lets it all hang out, musically and vocally, that the Veils shine brightest. "Jesus For The Jugular" is that type of song, the kind of outright blues that would make the White Stripes proud. Andrews enunciates every word carefully, with the vehemence of a revivalist preacher and the fury of the damned, and the band's hard-hitting stomp is all fire and brimstone. The title track is even more of a revelation, a slow burn of staccato drum rolls, threatening bass, and occasional jabs of guitar noise framing Andrews' long and increasingly chaotic questions: "Am I living wrong? / Do you see a long road with no one on it / and the right of men that you learnt only to forget / you see my sad wife and my high margin of profit / but you don't care at all." It's a crisis of faith that only propels itself along with Andrews' erratic temper and the growing fever of the band which bubbles below the surface, finally exploding as Andrews screams "I'll see you all / and I'll raise you" and then collapsing in on itself with the last, haunting series of lines, where Andrews cautions "honey, it ain't hard to loose your grip in the midst of all of this / but it ain't far to fall / it's not far at all." It's a masterful exercise in tension and release, and a microcosm of the record as a whole.

Nux Vomica is a difficult record to pin down, going as it does from `60s-pop songs to Jeff Buckley-esque ballads to tough-as-nails, blues-influenced rock `n roll, but what keeps the ship steady remains Andrews' consistently brilliant performances, from the wretched anguish of "Not Yet" all the way through to the melancholy "House Where We All Live." It's an album that succeeds largely based on something that is often so hard to catch, something that many artists search in vain for throughout their careers: the very heart of a emotion or feeling, encapsulated perfectly and without editing into a song. It's doubtful that an individual as volatile as Finn Andrews will ever release a record that so accurately transcribes his feelings and stories as well as Nux Vomica does. But even if he never comes close, the Veils have still left us with one of the great sublime records of the decade, a triumph of heartache and longing that is so intensely personal, it's message becomes universal.

I bought this album and took it along on my iPod this summer and hardly listened to it. Now I'm back in New York, and I can't live without it. Just saw his acoustic cover of Bruce Springsteen's "State Trooper" on YouTube, and finally understood.

Is this a Brit pop band? A New Zealand heavy metal stomp outfit? The latest chamber rock wunderkind in the mold of the Arcade Fire and Okkervil River? The Veils are all these things, and a bit more. The Kiwi lead singer, who sounds like a mix of Robert Plant and the dude who fronts the Violent Femmes (really, stay with me here), growls and emotes over piano, high-hat heavy drums and aggressive guitar. But how did these guys get so adept at pop, anthems, what sounds like American southern rock boogies and heartwrenching love ballads? America hasn't heard of these guys, but when this CD comes out in April, I trust they will...the Veils are, to quote Hank Williams, "wild and blue."

I'd first reviewed this CD for the college radio station, and since then the music's been on my mind. It's rare that a voice comes along that seemingly flows through the air smoother than a river over rocks. The power of the singer's voice is enough to jerk me out of everyday life and into whatever wonder this band is able to create with their music.
The third song, Advice for Young Mothers to be, makes me weep every time I hear it. The reason for this is the words go along with the melody, unlike half the songs on the CD, and the song touches on a subject male singers rarely touch on - pregnancy.
The song does it effectively, not targeting people like a lot of modern music seems to, but simply putting the spotlight on young pregnant women, trying to cheer them on and enter their shoes.
The harmonics of this song are very easy to follow, and one's mind trails along with the music for every note of it. "Bloody marvelous."
These guys deserve much more spotlight than they've been given. Nice freaking job!

I could count on my hands the number of bands I like that have emerged in the last 10 years. The Veils are so good, I might even devote two fingers to them. They have a depth to them that seems rare in modern music. There are some lighter songs with good melodies that sound reminiscent of The Smiths. There are also deeply cathartic powerful beats that are unlike most other bands you'll hear. Andrews' vocals are surely the standout, but that alone doesn't make a good album. The composition of the music is every bit his equal and it makes for an amazing experience.

I can't point to a single bad song on this album and that's a rarity. There are a few songs that make me want to turn out the lights, turn the amp up to 11, and really experience how a song can rip emotion out of you. Nirvana has some, Richard Thompson has some, and Nux Vomica definitely does. I only wish I had some 600w monoblocks, giant tower speakers, and 110dB of Jesus for the Jugular in my living room right now to really experience this to the fullest.

Those who really like Andrews' voice should listen to Starsailor. Yes, it's a stupid name for a band, but Andrews and James Walsh have eerily similar voices and even their music sounds alike in many ways. They are two of my favorite bands and that's an elite group.

One other thing about this album is worthy of mention. Thankfully there are still some sound engineers out there who understand music. Given the style of this album, it would have been easy to succumb to the goddamn loudness wars and pander to the MP3 crowd. I'm happy to report that is not the case with this album. The tracks are dynamic and possess plenty of headroom. Anyone who appreciates sound quality will know what I'm on about. This album was properly mastered with an ear for dynamics.

Perhaps not as glistening as their most recent release Sun Gangs, Nux Vomica by the upstart band The Veils is worthy of mention. Though it's perhaps less polished than Sun Gangs, the songs contained within possess more raw power, energy and even consistency than their newer offering.

Skipper of the group Finn Andrews possesses a voice that trembles, wails and screams with a feverish emotion that at times channels the likes of Nick Cave, The Cure's Robert Smith, and even Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin. Though it is more than his voice which carries the record, as his skilled accompaniment makes a bit more accessible what would amount to an otherwise be a fatiguing listening experience. Like Modest Mouse, The Veils have rotated members routinely, though it doesn't show as this group, like MM, play so tightly together that from album to album they make it work effortlessly, surprisingly so since much of the songs are up tempo.

Nux Vomica is a fairly dark album. Songs like Jesus for The Jugular, Not Yet, Nux Vomica, A Birthday Present, and bonus track Night Thoughts of a Tired Surgeon exude a barely contained, simmering rage from Andrews, singing of frenzy and powerlessness. Though deflated by slower paced and introspective songs like Under the Folding Branches, this album is a jarring work that demands attention and further listening.

As a general rule, its hard to find anything that moves you, consistantly at least. But everytime I re-visit this album, it just sweeps me off of my feet.

The opening song 'Not Yet' is epic. The song touches on several different genres of musis, easily slipping between them all.

'Calliope!' is a wonderful follow up. And that surpises me. When an album start off as heavy and amazing as 'Not Yet'... you almost expect that the rest of the album will pale in comparison. But it doesn't. This album really is amazing, and never leaves my Ipod.

And you know what else? This group is JUST AS GREAT live. If you have a chance to catch a show; do! Finn Andrews is a wild, born performer.