Evi Vine – Give your Heart to the Hawks
Evi Vine has something of a hallowed reputation within Goth(ic) circles. Yet it would be a major error to peg this girl to goth or post punk. Such tags would undermine, rather than underpin such a talent. Evi is more than that. Everything she does has an understated majestic quality. Evi Vine is flying stealth below everyone’s radar, a bird of prey, cloaked, with talons.
Get ready to give your heart away.
Debut album And so the morning comes was a delight. This follow-up is even more minimal and personal. Serene opener ‘Porcelain’ gives way to the stately elegance of ‘Love Is Gone’. I think we can put the vocal comparisons to bed now. Elizabeth Fraser? Evi gets that a lot. Nice problem to have. She’d certainly fit in on the classic 4AD roster. One of the team here also mentioned Martina Topley Bird which I think is more than fair. But Evi is Evi now. The common theme that emerges is of a unique, brilliant singer. It’s because of her distinctiveness that you can imagine others wishing to collaborate with Evi, hence evoking the likes of This Mortal Coil or Massive Attack.
Give your Heart to the Hawks is a hazy, flickering record. I find myself leaning in to listen. Evi the persona sounds as fragile and vulnerable as ever while her voice soars. With the debut being something of a ‘Filigree And Shadow meets All About Eve‘, such references are rendered mere starting points for …the hawks. This new album has a broader sonic palate. The gothic tinged folk gives way to dub and trip hop during ‘Tears Falling To Earth’ but retakes centre stage on the funereally paced title track. It’s the albums second ‘wow’ moment in the space of four songs – check out the climax. ‘My hands are tied’ has the feel of a familiar folk standard albeit given the Evi ‘sparse intimacy’ treatment. Buried at the back of the mix there’s a burning guitar solo but it cannot detract from Evi Vine’s compelling singing voice accompanied by the simplest of acoustic strings.
You’ll have heard of ‘Song To The Siren’. This is what the siren would have sung back to the sailor.
At first listen, spoken word closing track ‘I’m Not Here’ has neither the climactic pull nor standout prettiness to be the ending. In fact it becomes apparent ‘I’m Not Here’ is the reprise to opening track, ‘Porcelain’. The Möbius loop is completed but not before we cross the troubled waters that comprise ‘Welcome the dream led masses’. At such times this record flirts with ambient/post rock and even IDM with its little glitches and patches of dialogue.
Give Your Heart to the Hawks is a quiet, understated record which is somehow also unexpectedly sprawling and ambitious. Not to be underestimated, neither Evi Vine herself who is emerging as a major talent, and I do not say the words lightly.