The lineup of The Veils may have changed frequently since they formed in 2002 but, throughout, their sound has been recognisible by the intense voice and deep thinking of frontman Finn Andrews.
This is their third album and Andrews describes it as "a very modern mixture of prayers, love letters and personal record keeping". Often, you get a sense that the feeling of the songs is more important than meaning although listeners will find here a consistent preoccupation with transience in relationships and of life itself.
The Sun Gangs of the title refers to the Earth's star constellations. For believers, this image will symbolise the glory of a God created universe but it offers up no such reassurances to Andrews. On the title track, the repeated refrain "Where I'm going - you can't save me" are not those of someone who expects to enter some blissful afterlife.
The album's opening track - produced by Bernard Butler - is 'Sit Down By The Fire' and this contains all the album's key themes. It speaks of the sadness of being part an "universe unmanned " but also of a desperate need to be loved and feel needed. The song takes a fundamentally banal message - into every life a little rain must fall - but makes of it something emotionally disconcerting. A great song.
The remaining nine tracks - all produced by Graham Sutton - have the trappings of mainstream indie-pop without apeing the bland formula of this genre.
The hysterical vocals and frantic disjointed pop of 'Killed By The Boom' is , I suspect, deliberately intended to show that for all the brooding melancholy of many of these songs, The Veils are, at heart, a rock band. 'Three Sisters' is a little more controlled but in the same vein.
In between these two tracks is 'It Hits Deep' , a slower song with graceful orchestral sweeps, reflective vocals and more stress over departures: "Hope there's someone because I'll be gone for a while" .
Many songs on this record imply that dealing with loss, doubt and diorientation is what makes us human. This may focus on non specific external forces or more tangeable personal relationships, as on'The House She Lived In' - a delicate and perfectly pitched song of regret : "It all went wrong but I wish you'd have stayed with me".
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The main weakness of the record is that, at times, the focus on heightened drama and the poetic sensibility of a soul in torment is overdone. Andrews' voice is a beautiful mix of fragility and assertiveness although his theatrical delivery can sometimes seem mannered rather than heartfelt. I couldn't help thinking that more simplicity and a little self depricating irony would have created greater sense of balance and brought out the pathos more. This is certainly the case with the penultimate track, Larksput, an epic eight and half minutes that begins quietly with the wistful realisation that there is "no rest for my heart" and ends with a moaning primal cries of one possessed ("something got a hold of me") . It sounds like a purging of pain and anguish. and closes enigmatically (and cinematically) with the line - 'And the sky lit it up".
There is no single from the album but if there was, the obvious choice would be 'The Letter'. But even a relatively 'straight' love song like this has bitter twists or is heavy with symbolism. Lines like "Go wash your heart in the river till the water runs clear" are not designed to be MTV friendly.
Andrews is an unquiet soul who has some dark dreams and plenty of demons to be exorcised. The sombre funereal beat of 'Scarecrow' is that of someone who feels he is not made for these times. This feeling of being lost is echoed in the closing song ('Begin Again') where we are "following the light of long dead stars". a fitting closure for an album which begins with images of birth but is more preoccupied with seperation and endings.
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