2 Dec 2023
UsernamePassword

Remember Me? | Join | Recover
Click here to sign in via social networking

Velvet Arrow - Album Review: Songs of Solitude

17 Nov 2023 // A review by Roger Bowie

A Song Of Hope & Fear would normally be a contradiction in terms unless darkness prevails and light shines through, which is an appropriate metaphor for the debut album from Whangarei’s Velvet Arrow and the opening song, with Dan Stenhouse’s husky voice helping us through the night against a ghostly horror wail from Hannah Jane. After all it’s just a song to help you through the night, just the words that speak, it’s not real. Soft harmony comforts, but Dan’s shrill guitar suggests the dream might turn to nightmare.

"Songs of Solitude" describes the body of work, but the songs themselves suggest you are not alone. Dan and Hannah Jane have been immersed in the alt-folk darkness since they met in 2017 and found refuge from the past in melancholic melodies infused with shafts of light. Out of darkness comes light. 

Hannah writes, and sings beautifully, Dan composes, arranges and produces, and also sings in contrast, and together they make their magic, Broken Symphony, dark, sombre, silent crescendos, but ultimately soothing. You might say Songs of Solitude reflect redemption. But don’t take my songs from me. 

And history. The cracking of a needle settling into grooves, and a blues wail emerges. A song based on the Blind Willie Johnson gospel blues chant, Dark Was The Night (and the ground was cold). Rich guitars embellish a sensitive melody to tell the Blind Willie story. Where do you go if you’re black, blind and poor? History. Porch music outro. 

There’s nothing like a banjo to lift the spirits or is it just to juxtapose the threat? A woman in a red dress seeks Red Revenge from the memories of a childhood trauma, a wander through the forbidden forest just a stone’s throw from grandma’s place but miles away in safety. You know the story. Evil lurks. Beasts wander. Arrows cannot be velvet in this world. 

Dan leads the next song, watching me fall till I’m out of sight, classic alt-country, Americana noir. Taking this Troubled Mind down south. Strangely upbeat. Escape is redemption. Hollow guitars chase him away, now that’s it’s time.

But watch out, sirens sound, storm rises, it’s a Sunset & Tsunami from Over the Rhine. Follow me, I’m redemption but also, I’m safety, I’m the sunset which turns into a tidal wave, I’m sacrifice.

You Can’t Reason With A Dead Man might be a truism from most vantage points, but it’s only after a desperate plea in the moonshine hills which proves futile. You’re not dead yet, but you will be. You can’t reason with the devil. Thus, my failure is rationalized into fabulous picking on a banjo. It’s sad, but true. 

Hannah’s vocals are sensitized with Dan’s harmony, but the image is Quicksand, and it’s mental not physical, between hope and reality is the abyss, so tread with care. But help arrives with understanding and a beseeching “don’t panic.” Someone wails on a saxophone, that’s always jazz soothing, God bless the sax, especially on outro. 

Wait, there’s hope, there’s spaghetti, there’s running to the west, there’s a strangely Patti Smith tone to this banjo-tinged tale of redemption through run away, Runaway Girl. You may have seen this on video. Yes, sand dunes and escape. Yet Morricone would accentuate the sombre. Fierce guitar would contradict. Try hope instead. Because when spring arrives in bold, wild country twang, hope springs eternal and you can surely, positively Throw Me Some Hope. Some rope also. It’s been a hard year, could have been a covid year, but that’s not the only cause of hardship.

Hope springs eternal, and thus light shines through, the metaphor intact and true, and the Sunset Reprise provides a celestial conclusion to this paean of darkness to light. Thunder in this context is soothing, redemption is nigh. 

Mastered by Chris Chetland, but the credit must go to Dan and Hannah Jane for compiling this beautiful album of fear and hope and redemptive flight. Think Civil Wars meets Nick Cave, Over the Rhine to Radiohead. Think deep. 

Out now to stream but purely on vinyl…

 

About Velvet Arrow

Velvet Arrow takes you down a lost path of dark nights and lonesome dreamers…

Dan Stenhouse and Hannah Jane share a unique blend of harmony, wandering through fields of Alt-Folk into Dark Country and somewhere in between.


Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Velvet Arrow

Releases

Songs of Solitude
Year: 2023
Type: Album
Songs of Solitude
Year: 2020
Type: EP

Other Reviews By Roger Bowie

Gig Review: The Phoenix Foundation @ Hollywood Avondale, Auckland - 24/11/2023
26 Nov 2023 // by Roger Bowie
This is a first of many things. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen The Phoenix Foundation play live.
Read More...
Gig Review: Atomic: Women of Rock @ The Civic, Auckland - 11/11/2023
13 Nov 2023 // by Roger Bowie
What a feast of nostalgia we’ve had from Liberty Stage (Simone Williams) these past few years, as New Zealand’s finest have Come Together to cover the classic albums which made the soundtracks of our youth. In addition to this, there have also been special tributes like Tami Neilson’s rock ‘n roll party with Dinah Lee, just last month.
Read More...
Dimmer - Album Review: Live At The Hollywood
09 Nov 2023 // by Roger Bowie
Wow, not very often that we see alive album these days, an unusual beast, but that’s we have, a 14-track monster from Dimmer, recorded from last year’s sold-out trilogy at the Hollywood Avondale. Which, if you didn’t get to go last year, you can still see on December 2nd at the Powerstation, unless, like me, you are going instead to The War on Drugs.
Read More...
Killergrams - EP Review: Lonely Nights In A Little Town
27 Oct 2023 // by Roger Bowie
Someone walked out, and Tom Maxwell has lost his mind, in a gentle, acoustic way. Then his mind explodes in a cacophony of chaos, which might just be what it feels like, losing something that important.
Read More...
D.C. Maxwell - Album Review: Lone Rider
24 Oct 2023 // by Roger Bowie
I’ve Been Wrong, but every once in a while, someone comes along and knocks you out. Random violence is not what this is about, but D.
Read More...
Julian Temple Band - Album Review: Tunnels
23 Oct 2023 // by Roger Bowie
What tunnels have I been hiding in? Here’s a band from Dunedin with now seven albums out and first time for me.
Read More...
Gig Review: Tami Neilson @ The Civic, Auckland - 13/10/2023
15 Oct 2023 // by Roger Bowie
It’s Friday night at The Civic and the vibe is rock ‘n’ roll as the immaculately costumed The Up-Doos jive on stage and launch into the Bobettes’ Mr Lee (the one before they shot him). The Up-Doos are a party band paying homage to the girl groups of the 50's and 60's.
Read More...
The Mentalist Collective - Album Review: Signal Hill
13 Oct 2023 // by Roger Bowie
Here’s a great new band from Dunedin, a collective of mentalists who write and perform and presumably subscribe to mentalism, which is a kind of magic but with psychology at its core. They might play tricks on you, but it’s for a good cause.
Read More...
View All Articles By Roger Bowie

NZ Top 10 Singles

  • LOVIN ON ME
    Jack Harlow
  • WATER
    Tyla
  • GREEDY
    Tate McRae
  • AGORA HILLS
    Doja Cat
  • PAINT THE TOWN RED
    Doja Cat
  • LOSE CONTROL
    Teddy Swims
  • BLUE EYED M?ORI
    Corrella
  • STRANGERS
    Kenya Grace
  • CONFIDENCE
    Ocean Alley
  • CRUEL SUMMER
    Taylor Swift
View the Full NZ Top 40...
muzic.net.nz Logo
100% New Zealand Music
All content on this website is copyright to muzic.net.nz and other respective rights holders. Redistribution of any material presented here without permission is prohibited.
Report a ProblemReport A Problem