Crooked Words #16: Hovvdy and Memorial return
Hovvdy - Try Try Try
Self-titled albums bring a strange kind of curiosity, especially when they lie deep within an artist's career, rather than at its foundation. When Hovvdy released their own self-titled effort, it was their fifth full-length collection, but it also seem to make a lot of sense when coupled with the context of the songs found within.
A sprawling double-record, the Hovvdy LP roamed wild and free, drifting between the varying strands of sounds they've played with over the past decade or so. And so the eponymous nature of the worl made sense, feeling like an underlining of their craft, perhaps even a line-in-the-sand for their work to-date.
A little over two-years on from the release of said record, that elusion seems to bear fruit with the release of the first single from their newly-announced sixth album. Set for release in mid-August, Big World is preceded by 'Try Try Try', a song that once again seems to shift the parameters of Will Taylor and Charlie Martin's ever-endearing project.
“When it comes to the music, there’s literally never questions between Charlie and me, only answers,” Will says of the new collection, which saw them alter their overall approach: where they've always entered the studio with a batch of demos, here they only had instruments and space to fill. Big World is what came out of that time, where they chose to "write and respond to the songs in real time".
Try Try Try makes sense in such context, a loose and rugged two-and-a-half minutes that pours forward with a real sense of warmed blood, a spirited sense of adventure. Scorched at the edges, a little jagged through its core, it's not the Hovvdy we know, necessarily, but it's certainly the same one we hold dearly.
Memorial - Teeth
Sometimes a record arrives just when – and just as – you need it too. There's often no rhyme or reason to it, just one of those odd weaving of timelines the universe has a knack of knitting together from time to time.
When Memorial released their Redsetter LP almost two years ago to the day, it felt like quiet revelation, the kind of fascinating folk record that carried its heart right out front; the colours it held matching the sun that seemed to always be setting around the edge of the songs found within.
The project of Brighton duo of Jack Watts and Oliver Spalding, Memorial's second album went on to be named GFP's album of the year for 2024, and its retained its gentle power in the time since then, the subtle tug of the songs enough to keep you coming back as the dust settles on the surface of it all.
Wonderful news then that today, Memorial share a brand new single, ‘Teeth’, the first new music we've heard from them since that aforementioned record. It's also their first release via the OPIA Community, the record label founded by Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds, who joins the duo on piano here, alongside Sam Amidon who adds further contextual heft, as well as backing vocals, violin, cello, bass and drums.
As understated and sweeping as those songs found on Redsetter, 'Teeth' might well mark a brand new chapter for the band but it also links arms with what's come before, the beautiful harmonies, the tender playing so refined but steadfast that it feels as wholly fascinating as ever.
Available wherever you get your music, you can listen to 'Teeth' here
