Otherwise known as the Poison Tree, ‘Nux Vomica’ is an Asian evergreen source of strychnine that also has various healing qualities. A point of reference that says much about the music within, The Veils’ singer and creative protagonist Finn Andrews, back with a new line-up for this second album, seems himself to have tapped a source that is equally cursed and blessed. The result is a master class for artists everywhere in how to nurture creative conflict to achieve flawed perfection. Combining Jeff Buckley’s fragility with The Waterboys’ songwriting grandeur, songs such as ‘Calliope!’, ‘Jesus For The Jugular’ (a deserved twatting for religious bigots) and the devastating ‘Under The Folding Branches’ seem perfectly aligned to some centrifugal purpose that persists in the dumbstruck silence long after the album concludes, and follows you, seamlessly, into your dreams. Utterly essential.
(10/10)
The Fly