HOPE SANDOVAL – THROUGH THE DEVIL SOFTLY

Mysterious and beguiling as ever at 42, Hope Sandoval has long been a dark star for a generation; a pin-up girl for the Lynchian sub-genre of downbeat folk rock that her band Mazzy Star all but invented. This is Hope’s third solo record since the unofficial disbanding of Mazzy Star in 1998, and she has created a new journey down an old familiar path, that is at once lethargic and highly arresting. Her distinctive, reverby drawl snakes its way through this material, a boiling pot of understated tunes that cements her ability to use song as a visual medium. Through these songs, Sandoval and long-time collaborator Colm Ó Cíosóig explore a peacefully forlorn landscape, minimising arrangements and concentrating instead on the natural nuances of their instruments and the spaces around them. The album rarely travels above a gentle rumble – instead the songs simmer in a kind of folky underworld. Sandoval’s ghostly presence is well-preserved from those haunting days of Mazzy Star – still residing in that familiar chamber of reverb, her thoughts and mystic melodies seem somehow clearer with age. Coisoig’s weary, echoey guitar playing responds to Sandoval’s murmurings perfectly, and the odd instrumental surprise such as the gorgeously strange percussion and auto-harp laden lament Fall Behind, and the AM-radio simmer of Satellite make this slow burning pilgrimage a real joy to sit through.

****1/2