"wipe away those tears, it's a lonely atmosphere..."
Coupled with a whimsical / slightly creepy filmic Official Video, that feels like a collision between David Lynch and Norman Z. McLeod, the infinitely dreamy "Lone Star" from UK's artful Maven Grace plays like a fever dream. As press notes reveal this orchestral pop imagining was recorded at Bryan Ferry's Avonmore Studios and "inspired by a conversation between the Roxy Music frontman and Maven Grace's Henry Jack".
There is so much to love here. The production is thankfully sparse only swelling when it needs to and that aesthetic leaves room for the layers to breathe, for the tender vox to shine. Unfortunately there seems to be a tendency for a lot of productions to go the other way, to layer their cake so heavily that any narrative that was once evident is deat and buried but not here.
What remains is absolutely stunning and beautifully presented, sometimes a bit sideways and I love that. Listening I thought of other artists like Cocteau Twins, like The Kinks, like ELO, like Paul McCartney and Wings, like The Moody Blues and even Echo and the Bunnymen not because Maven Grace sounds like any of these artists in particular but because I feel slivers of creativity as malleable as mercury coursing through the veins of this song. An creative attitude and acuity that they all seem to share. A similar artistic gene pool so to speak.
Maven Grace are Mary Home, Henry Jack and Tom White (of Electric Soft Parade and Brakes). From Press notes: [ A redemptive requiem, born of love and loss, Maven Grace’s breath-taking debut album "Sleep Standing Up" is dropping on March 3rd, 2023. For Henry, Mary and Tom, the themes of bereavement, divorce and finding strength to keep going, permeate lilting pop structures and expansive orchestral flourishes throughout their debut album. ]
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://soundcloud.com/mavengracemusic
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3z82LIA0XPis29WuZ3tpBX
https://www.instagram.com/mavengracemusic/
Searching for hope can take you to some extreme places – just ask the trio of Henry Jack, Mary Home and Tom White who make up Maven Grace. On the trio’s debut album ‘Sleep Standing Up’, themes of bereavement, divorce and finding strength to keep going permeate lilting pop structures and expansive orchestral flourishes. These songs are borne out of personal journeys and geographical ones too – trips that took them to Bryan Ferry’s Avonmore studio to record, and as far as Beijing’s underground music scene – as the group sought to create something to provide defiant positivity amidst turbulent times.
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