Album Review by Jonathan Dyer
EVENINGLAND, the second album from New York octet Hem seems to be leaving many reviewers dissolving into a sea of their own superlatives. The press release proudly quotes numerous reviews that talk of ‘aching humanity’, ‘bittersweet melancholy’ and ‘allusive, haunting songs’. The cynic in me always questions whether there is anything of note behind the hyperbole spilled onto paper once the hot chocolate honey-coated tones (yes, it seems to be catching) are oozing through the speakers.
Front woman Sally Ellyson undoubtedly has one of the most memorable voices of the last decade – at times eerily reminiscent of the late Karen Carpenter – and could sing the second hand Skoda adverts from a back issue of ‘Exchange & Mart’ and melt the hardest of concrete hearts in an instant.
The opener THE FIRE THIEF is simply terrific – Mazzy Star at their most ethereal accompanied by the Diazepam-dosed strings of the London Philharmonic. HOLLOW and AN EASY ONE also hint at a band with a good degree of reverence for their folk/country roots but with enough presence to produce something truly special of their own.
But on tracks like RECEIVER and CARRY ME HOME, something just isn’t quite right. Beautifully arranged and sung, but sounding more like an alt.country Carpenters parody than a clearly talented band with their own voice. In amongst the sweeping orchestral strings and vocally applied lip balm, there just isn’t enough substance to make the album as memorable as it feels like it should be. It seems to be overpowered by the production in places – Ellyson’s wonderful voice often seems to play a supporting role to the orchestration which almost consciously tries to hide the fact that many of the songs simply don’t come up to scratch.
After their promising debut RABBIT SONGS which also attracted many gushing reviews, the feeling is that EVENINGLAND should really have delivered on that promise – which it doesn’t quite manage. And thereby hangs Hem’s problem – all beautiful dreamy mouth and no trousers.
