If you can make it through the whole of ‘If You Leave’
without crying, you have a heart of stone.
As the evocative guitar lines of opener Winter shiver, you’re immediately plunged into another world of serene
contemplation. Whether sat in the office,
a bustling tube or walking down a busy street, nothing else matters but the voice
of Elena Tonra. Frail and fragile, her
singing is the essence of vulnerability.
This fragility is mirrored by the heavily reverbed, delicate
electric guitar playing. Strings are
gently plucked giving the music room to breathe, the space between each note
and chord filled with shimmering echoes like ripples in a pool, imbued with
emotive weight from Tonra’s lyrics.
Percussion has been given greater prominence since the band’s previous
EPs – punching through on Human urging
us to “feel something” and skittering on Shallows. Though some tracks bring variation, such as
the acoustic start to Human, the
music always slowly builds, layering liquid guitars and vocals to a tumultuous,
rapturous chaos for a wide ranging dynamic. With each track
following a similar structure, the album does become predictable and sags a
little in the middle.
Yet Tonra’s elegiac lyrics are utterly heart-breaking
and captivate throughout the album. Most
of the songs deal with loss in a bleak but touching manner. On Tomorrow
she begs us “don’t bring tomorrow”, whereas Human ends suddenly with the line “but I think I’m dying here”. This might seem melodramatic, but the reflective mood and haunting nostalgia give a reverent, almost spiritual feel. Youth marks
an early highlight as the crashing dissipates at the punchline “And if you’re
in love you are the lucky one, ‘cause most of us are bitter over someone”
before catapulting us back into the storm with its accusatory "you caused it". It’s Smother, though, that
provides the most painful lyric of all: “I sometimes wish I’d stayed inside my
mother, never to come out”.
Excuse me, I just need a moment…
4/5
Gizzle's Choice:
* Smother
* Youth
* Shallows
Listen: 'If You Leave' is available from the 18th March.