Total Depravity The Veils

• 1 Axolotl 03:02
• 2 A Bit on the Side 03:55
• 3 Low Lays the Devil 03:16
• 4 King of Chrome 04:04
• 5 Swimming with the Crocodiles 04:32
• 6 Here Come the Dead 03:14
• 7 In the Blood 03:21
• 8 Iodine & Iron 04:35
• 9 House of Spirits 04:14
• 10 Do Your Bones Glow at Night? 04:33
• 11 In the Nightfall 04:05
• 12 Total Depravity 05:04
• Total Runtime 47:55

Info for Total Depravity

Total Depravity ist bereits das fünfte Album von The Veils und markiert eine neue Ära der Band um Frontmann Finn Andrews. Mit seinen extremen klanglichen Kontrasten, mutilierten Loops, plakativen Texten und dem evangelischen Eifer ist Total Depravity eine unvorhersehbare Reise, deren Krone die außergewöhnliche Produktion von El-P (Run The Jewels) und Adam „Atom“ Greenspan darstellt. Die düstere Schönheit von Total Depravity stellt den größten stilistischen Wandel der Veils bis dato dar und zeigt eine Band auf der Höhe ihres Schaffens.

The Veils verharren musikalisch nie lange an einem Ort, das liegt vielleicht auch daran, dass Andrews das erste Album der Band bereits mit 14 Jahren schrieb. Vom melancholischen Pop von Runaway Found über das existenzialistisch heulende Nux Vomica, zum gebrochenen und Folk-angehauchten Sun Gangs und dem majestätischen, mit pompösen Arrangements versehenem Time Stays, We Go - das Genre der Veils ist nicht wirklich über einen längeren Zeitraum zu definieren oder in Kategorien einzuordnen. Während der Grundstein für die Produktion von Time Stays durch eine Neuorientierung der Band nach Los Angeles gelegt wurde, bezeichnet bei Total Depravity das Zusammentreffen von Andrews und El-P den Ausgangspunkt dieses Albums.

Obwohl das Album kontrastreicher nicht sein könnte, stammen die Songs aus dem gleichen, sonderbaren Universum. Mit seinen bluesigen Melodien kommt „Low Lays The Devil“ mit einem heftigen Bass-Drum Ruck, der Andrews Stimme antreibt. Exemplarisch für den schmalen Grad zwischen Schönheit und Brutalität steht der rau grölende „King Of Chrome“, der direkt vom süßen und vielbeschäftigten Gitarrensong „Swimming With Crocodiles“ gefolgt wird.

The Veils

The Veils
return with their highly anticipated 4th album "Time Stays, We Go" -- released on their own Pitch Beast Records imprint.

Recorded at Seedy Underbelly Studios in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles and produced by lead singer/songwriter Finn Andrews and Adam Greenspan, "Time Stays, We Go" marks the beginning of a captivating new era for a band already hailed as "The best and most unsettling thing I've seen in music this year" by The LA Times and "Quite possibly the most underrated band on the planet" by NME.

Finn has had a life consistently surrounded by music. His father Barry Andrews was one of the founding members of new wave pioneers XTC and also collaborated with Iggy Pop, David Bowie and Robert Fripp in the 1980's -- but it wasn't until Finn moved to New Zealand with his mother in his teens that he started writing songs of his own. At 17 years old he returned to London and formed The Veils and has been touring and releasing records ever since.

It is with his band's fourth effort however, that the exceptional promise he has always displayed as a singer/songwriter has come to fruition.

"Time Stays, We Go" consists of ten songs culled from a batch of literally hundreds of songs written in the three years since The Veils last full-length release in 2009. Andrews says of the editing process:

"Adam Greenspan & also Nick Launay (producer The Bad Seeds, Yeah Yeah, Yeahs) helped me sort through them all and separate the good from the... not so good. I write almost every day so it was quite incredible the sheer quantity of ramblings I'd managed to accumulate in three years."

On "Time Stays, We Go" Andrews' voice sometimes echoes the low baritone of Lee Hazelwood or Leonard Cohen, such as on the ornithological Grimm Tale 'Birds.' But this voice becomes twisted and possessed during 'Dancing With The Tornado,' screeching and hollering through its narrative of a girl with "Tombstone teeth and hair pulled back tight like a violin bow."

Much like Andrews' heroine in that song, The Veils like to dance with the larger things. Subjects like love, death and time have always provided the backbone of Andrews' song writing and it is a pleasure to listen to a band having such fun with the material.

Long time collaborators Sophia Burn (bass), Raife Burchell (drums), Daniel Raishbrook (guitar) and new member Uberto Rapisardi (hammond organ) help create a rich musical backdrop for Andrews' songs, audibly relishing the opportunity to take the listener from frenzied album opener 'Through The Deep, Dark Wood' to the glistening, reverb-soaked ode to lost youth 'Candy Apple Red' -- all within the album's first 10 minutes.

'Train With No Name' is built around a rhythm track made of "about 15 toms and 25 tambourines" and features Robert Herrick's epigram "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may" spliced together with Andrews' own "'Cause once the night arrives it's here to stay." The couplet repeats as all around the rhythm takes on a distinctly locomotive feel of its own.

Returning to the same studio where they made their critically acclaimed album "Nux Vomica" in 2006, the band have again been inspired by both California's physical & musical landscape. Sprawling string arrangements on 'Another Night On Earth' bring to mind the lush instrumentation of Van Dyke Parks, while Mariachi-style horns on the joyous 'Turn From the Rain' and album closer 'Out From the Valley' evoke the Mojave's dusty desert badlands.

The band tempted seminal English producer Bill Price (The Clash, Jesus & Mary Chain) out of retirement to mix the record to tape at Metropolis Studios in London, lending the album a richly analogue sound, rarely heard in popular music today.

"Time Stays, We Go" shows The Veils at the very height of their creative powers so far, deftly combining two distinct sides of their personality, or as Andrews calls it, "The Pop & The Snarl":

"I never set out to be in a successful band, I just really hoped that someday I might get to be in a great one. Ultimately I've just always wanted to tell little stories in my songs, but then there's a very improvised and cathartic aspect to what we do as well and I really wanted this record to put both of these sides across. I like the idea of Roy Orbison having a weird day out in the desert with The Stooges."

As for the future of The Veils, Finn has only one thing on his mind:

"I just want to make another record, then another, then another -- on and on until I have to hang up my hat. I really do hope I get to do that..."

This album contains no booklet.