Eyebrows were raised when Veils frontman Finn Andrews was named among the cast of the forthcoming Twin Peaks reboot. But the truth is Andrews’s macabre aesthetic (and hat collection) is a perfect fit with David Lynch’s flickering neon world. His upbringing was divided between London (his father Barry Andrews played keyboards with XTC and Shriekback) and New Zealand (where his mother taught), and like all his band’s four previous albums Total Depravity is divided between Antipodean and English influences (the snarl of Nick Cave, the gutter-glam pop of Suede).
With Total Depravity, though, they’ve stepped up a level – with co-producer El-P ushering in psych synth squelches and creepy gospel (the epically titled Do Your Bones Glow At Night) and on the magnificent Low Lays The Devil a vintage blues squal equal to the Black Keys. Elsewhere, slow-burners Swimming With Crocodiles scales the same ‘big music’ heights once explored by the likes of The Waterboys. Grand and brilliant.
