Veronica Falls - Waiting For Something To Happen (2013) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Tell Me
02. Teenage
03. Broken Toy
04. Shooting Star
05. Waiting For Something To Happen
06. If You Still Want Me
07. My Heart Beats
08. Everybody's Changing
09. Buried Alive
10. Falling Out
11. So Tired
12. Daniel
13. Last Conversation
14. Waiting For Something To Happen (Demo)


Struggling to pin down Veronica Falls' sound, an interviewer recently told frontwoman Roxanne Clifford, "You know, you aren't twee." To which she replied, with exaggerated enthusiasm and perfect comedic timing, "Thanks!" It's easy to understand why people were quick to tack ready made labels onto Veronica Falls' sound when they first appeared on the indie pop scene several years ago. There's something familiar and retro-leaning about the London-based quartet-- a band daring to jangle in the long shadow of C86, copping a moody pose that's equally indebted to Morrissey and the Jesus and Mary Chain. But since their earliest singles, Veronica Falls seem to have figured out the deceptively simple, age-old secret to transcending influences: They just keep writing really good songs.

If people need to put a label on Veronica Falls' sound, Clifford told me when I interviewed her last year that she prefers the phrase "horror rock"-- a nod to her idol, garage rock pioneer Roky Erickson. (His band, cult favorites the 13th Floor Elevators, drew lyrical inspiration from old slasher flicks.) Veronica Falls released a sunny, serviceable cover of Erickson's "Starry Eyes" shortly after they formed in 2009, but it was on their excellent self-titled debut that they really came into the term. From the magnificently spooky "Found Love in a Graveyard" to the abrasive, zombified surf rock of "Beachy Head" (an ode to a craggy, coastline cliff in Sussex infamous for its suicides), a thematic chill ran throughout the album. And yet, Veronica Falls had a restraint and tasteful balance you don't often hear on debut records. They knew how to push their goth impulses just enough to be devotedly macabre, but not so far that their smartly arranged songs drowned in kitschy gimmicks. Even their most melodramatic and fantastical tracks like "Graveyard" were still grounded by relatable, down-to-earth emotions.

This remains true on the band's second album, Waiting for Something to Happen, which is not a huge departure from the debut but instead a showcase for subtle, wise tune-ups in the band's machinery. The chemistry between Clifford and James Hoare's dueling lead guitars is still strong, and the band's signature multi-part harmonies are as lush as they've ever been. Perhaps the most noticeable change is that Waiting feels like a warmer record. True to its "horror rock" ethos, the harmonies on Veronica Falls sometimes sounded like the work of an undead 60s girl group, but here, everybody sounds like they've got a little more color in their cheeks. Waiting still broods with the intensity of teenage love poems, but the approach here is more Romantic than Gothic. These aren't songs about heartbreak caused by ghosts, spirits, or dead poets; they're about the more ordinary variety of heartbreak between real, live people.

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