Deaf Havana – All These Countless Nights
Rock band Deaf Havana have been pretty silent (some assumed finished) since the release of their third album Old Souls back in 2013. It was followed up by the mysterious release of ‘Cassiopeia’ in 2015, but gave no indication of what the band was up to next. After a rocky few years as a band with unstable individuals, the fame shy, five-piece are now back with their struggles in lyrical form, and are ready to take on a headline tour with what is probably their best album yet.
All These Countless Nights might be their best album to date, but it is by no means their happiest. If you’re looking for a new uplifting album to get you through the day you won’t find it here, instead, you’ll find an album full of self-evaluation and straining harmonies that illustrate what it means to deal with alcoholism first-hand. If you’re already a fan, you’ll understand lead vocalist James Veck-Gilodi’s true representations of himself through his lyrics. If you’re not, then you’ll appreciate the album’s instrumental diversities. After taking some time out, the boys are back with a broadened sound that showcases their clear investment in the band’s future and moving forward.
alternating from sadness to frustration in every other track
The songs are louder and heavier, and don’t allow you to dwell on the lyrics too long. It’s an equal balance between the melancholy Deaf Havana and a more musically abrasive band. Their demonstration of variation can be seen just by listening to the first three tracks, which includes one of the singles ‘Trigger’. Its catchy chorus makes it understandably one of the most notable on the album, but it follows from the fantastic opener ‘Ashes, Ashes’ that eases listeners into Veck-Gilodi’s up and down world. This is paralleled by the albums up and down sequence of stylistic variations, alternating from sadness to frustration in every other track.
Tracks like ‘England’ represent their lessons learnt as musicians, it’s enticing bass and slow incorporation of instruments portrays an altered sound never heard from them before, and puts it as a true contender as being one of the stronger songs on the album. However, ‘Pretty Low’ s ironically upbeat intro leads to nothing of the sort, as we’re once again trapped by the stirring lyrics we’ve been made to draw attention to. Even with its heavy mid riff it lacks an epic finish as it consequently reverts back to being instrumentally reserved, something we thought had been cracked.
All I can hope now is that…we’ll see a lot more experimenting in albums to come
The album has an overall oomph not seen in their previous two albums and even though the lyrics in ‘Sing’ are a bit too cheesy for my liking, such as the line “We’re gonna sing, like we mean it”, its positive intentions and optimism are what I wish to see coming next from the band. All I can hope now is that the successful response of their fourth album means we’ll see a lot more experimenting in albums to come, allowing them to take pride in not producing another carbon copy with different lyrics.
