Echo Helstrom - The Veil
Rating
RIYL
Murder by DeathViarosa
Miles Dark
Clann Zu
Jeff Buckley
Tracklist
1. I Am Not A Murderer2. I'm Leaving Today
3. The Veil
4. Space Invader
5. Ocean Mile
6. Burning Sun
7. Hungry Ghost
8. True Love Waits
9. Where I Sleep
10. Davy Jones
11. I See Everything
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For a group of exceptionally talented artists so well-versed in a variety of musical styles, Echo Helstrom’s latest effort leaves a bit of an afterthought that they aren’t quite privy to the full potential of their skills. The Portland based outfit’s back-story fashions a multitude of reasons for this, as their prior self-titled album is the type of newbie effort that conjures hopeful, genre-shattering promises for everything that follows. This isn’t to say that The Veil is a disappointment -- it's far from it. However, for the quickly overcrowding style of indie that their music epitomizes, it’s quite clear that the band is a long way away from completing the road that leads to their full maturity of creating a sound that is fully unique and ultimately timeless.
Thanks largely to improved mixing and production, the gist of The Veil plays out as an ironed out version of the ideas introduced on the first album. Even though the overall sound hasn’t advanced greatly, Echo Helstrom still delivers their particular brand of swaying indie-edged folk rock with an acute perfection. Barring a few instances that the group does reach that secondary plateau of incomparable excellence, the remainder of the effort is solid enough to provide a decent distraction.
Despite being damn good tunes, “Space Invader” and “I’m Leaving Today” best represent the somewhat plaguing format of the group’s sophomore release being only one notch above the middle of the pack. The strange aspect in all of this is that these songs, as well as “I’m Not a Murderer,” are by no means just slightly above average as far as being listenable is concerned. The issue lays within their overall linear style’s uncertainty of measuring up to the artists that spawned them, as well as the more expansive work manifested by current peers such as Viarosa, Murder by Death, and Clann Zu (Declan de Barra these days).
On the upside, “Ocean Mile,” and to a greater extent, “Burning Sun” and “The Veil” showcase the group’s untapped aptitude to play in the big leagues with their more complete contemporaries. The album’s title track works so well simply because it displays the sextet stretching their creative wings beyond their expected straight-forward pop via use of a well-placed mid-song bridge into a raw, alternative-charged rhythm. Both “Ocean Mile” and “Burning Sun” are the first tracks on the album to make substantial use of the group’s jazz education. Moreover, the latter tune removes the typical mousy female backing vocals that are often used in a trillion other violin-driven orchestra-meets-folk-meets-indie records. In return, it welcomes a more sensual supporting croon close the style that Sade has used to move millions of record. Overall, with these melodies being the most effective of The Veil’s workings, Echo Helstrom should make it a task to further progress the use of their classical and jazz training.
Of course, “Hungry Ghost,” “Where I Sleep,” and “True Love Waits” could be remarked as the album’s strongest pieces, but these songs do more to hinder the composition than excel it. The first two songs mentioned are carryovers from the prior album, which ground this effort’s signature appeal -- especially since these two re-recordings outperform most of the album’s legitimate new works. And even though the band reprises Radiohead’s “True Love Waits” in brilliant form, this heartrending cover pretty much overshadows everything else on the The Veil, thus creating the same snag that cripples many other artists that choose to place someone else’s song on their own LP. While this doppelganger gesture certainly won’t bury Echo Helstrom much as it did with countless nu-metal acts of recent years, there’s just no better way to make someone not care about the songs they wrote.
Ultimately, it’s these shortcomings that make it difficult to except this album as a complete successor to the band’s 2003 debut. Even though the record is good enough to keep out of your local independent record store’s 99 cents bin, it won’t be pulled off the shelf more often than the occasional listen. Fortunately, there’s still enough going on here to keep anticipation up for future endeavors.
--MJ Austin
Comments
"These are our lives, but did they ever even matter - are we worth remembering?"
- "Tip The Scales"
Rise Against
Tucson, AZ
Sacramento, CA
the only thing i don't like about this band is that the vocals don't really fit the music some of the time. however, if they kept the vocals and wrote simple hard rock tunes, this band would move more records than sade. naturally, i do not wish for them to do this.
anyway, some of your points are on, but i just apparently don't hear this record in the same way that you do.
I'm not here to make things better; only to observe and pass judgement.
Dallas, Texas
Since when is a 3 an unsatisfactory score? I guess with all the biased, overrated 4.5's and 5's we constantly hand out around here, a 3 suddenly looks feeble and demeaning.
Anyhow, personal taste would possibly have me rate this higher, but a bit of renewed appreciation for objectivity says it can’t go any higher than this. Some of you might want consider the same principle.
I mean damn, I can’t imagine an album that has “vocals don't really fit the music some of the time” being in the 3.5 to 4 range by any stretch of the numbers. Vocals are a very big piece of any music that uses them, and when laying down a critique, “some of the time” is a very big statement.
Sacramento, CA
the best i can hope for is that our back and forth makes people think maybe they should check the review out.
I'm not here to make things better; only to observe and pass judgement.
I agree - that you have to be objective in the reviewing. It's something I'm trying to do myself. Even with objectivity - I still say this album deserves a slightly higher score. Having said that, I'm not really trying to just argue with you, it's your review, you're entitled to make your view known and give it the score you did. I do, however, agree with Ben in that a lot of people don't bother with our 3 star reviews and I'm hoping that if someone reads the comments, they see conflicting opinions and are more likely to give this band a good listen - as they deserve it with the quality of this package. It was still a well thought out review and you apparently made good points on some of it (I do think they have the potential to hone and make a "knock you out" borderline 5 star album in the future), but I don't think this album sits in the area of mediocrity either. (Which to me - a 3 is mediocre.. only a smidgen above everyone else... silly as it sounds a 3.5 is when you start getting into noteworthy area).
"These are our lives, but did they ever even matter - are we worth remembering?"
- "Tip The Scales"
Rise Against