ALBUM: Vashti Bunyan, ‘Heartleap’
A Vashti Bunyan album is something of a rare gem. It took 35 years for us to get a follow-up to her debut Just Another Diamond Day and now it’s been nine years since her second, Lookaftering. Bunyan has said that she wanted to capture the feel of her pre-Diamond Days demos and, while it’s not a world away from her ’60s material, it actually follows Lookaftering well. This time, though, you can tell that Bunyan was very much been in control of her latest project; every word she sings sounds so honest, it’s hard not to listen and feel like she’s opening her heart and telling you some of her deepest thoughts and feelings.
Nowhere is this more apparent that on the piano-led track “Mother.” “My mother would dance sometimes believing herself alone,” she sings with a quiver to her voice, recalling this obviously vivid image from childhood. It’s incredibly moving, with the piano echoing quietly as if from another room, like a treasured memory. Similarly affecting is the title track, a reflective lullaby that feels as heartbreaking as it is soothing.
“Gunpowder,” a song of lost love, is full of longing and regret (“It seems I can never learn my words / watching them turn around burning / lighting the gunpowder trails that you lay”) with a softly rousing string section adding to the effect, while “Jellyfish” with its glockenspiel-style chiming is like stepping into a woozy dream of swimming in the sea.
There’s no doubt that all of Bunyan’s albums have a gentle feel thanks to her delicate, whispering voice, but Heartleap is surely her most intimate. This is probably due to the fact that most of it was recorded by Bunyan alone in her Edinburgh home as well as in a studio in Topanga Canyon, California. Rather that rely on backing musicians this time ’round, she crafted much of the instrumentation using synthesized instruments (although her guitar is also evident on most tracks, too), yet the album still feels completely organic, which may well be due to Bunyan’s fragile and otherworldly vocals. There are a few guest musicians, notably Devendra Banhart and Vetiver’s Andy Cabic on “Holy Smoke,” but, on the whole, the solitary feel is what makes this album so special.
Overall, Heartleap is a graceful, wistfully beautiful album, full of folky elegance and dreamy melodies. It’s both haunting and uplifting and, if it really is to be her last, it’s a more than fitting final album.
Heartleap is out today via Fat Cat Records in the UK, and DiCristina Records in the US.
