Heaven's Night [CD]

Holy Motors' third studio album, Heaven's Night, pairs the band's signature Western dreamscapes with pop hooks and new-wave textures that mark new territory for the Estonian band. Notably, there is a new sweetness to the collection of songs on Heaven's Night, which features characters who step away from the doomed sunsets and outback melancholy of 2020's Horse. As the band puts it, their new sound is ""sweet as dripping honey, sad like summer rain.""While fans might notice greater accessibility in these songs, Heaven's Night is still a classic Holy Motors record with all the attendant enigma. Frontwoman Eliann Tulve and guitarist Lauri Raus continue to write about characters searching for something more, often in the American West. In these new songs, the band brings us closer to these lost souls as they navigate right and wrong. As on the album's first single, ""Tough Crush,"" and the album's title track, the band paints vivid landscapes where characters seek escape on fleeting nighttime drives and one-night stands, looking to catch a breath of fresh air from lives that have become boring or even tedious in one way or another. The band has been working on these tracks on the road and in their practice space since coalescing in 2021, around the addition of guitarist Ivar Mägi and multi-instrumentalist Villem Sarapuu, who joined original members Eliann Tulve (vocals) and Lauri Raus (guitar), along with long-time drummer Caspar Salo. Recording at Ö Stuudio marks Heaven's Night as the first Holy Motors full-length recorded in Estonia. As Raus puts it, ""Recording at Ö Stuudio in Tartu was like setting up in a pawn shop of dusty relics where we could turn the amps up loud, that would never open, serve after-hours, and of course swing senselessly between what's right and wrong in the process,"" says Raus. On the record, you can hear anything from a 67' Fender to a $65 Casio keyboard-percussion program.Each member of the five-piece contributes to the overall sound of Heaven's Night. Salo, who also plays in Estonian R'n'B mainstays, Lexsoul Dancemachine, injects these songs with deeply rooted rhythms, from the loose swing of ""Lonesome Sinner"" to the rapid firing ""The Last Ones,"" (a staple and fan-favorite from their live set, now finally on wax). Sarapuu's synthesizers add lush textures to some of these songs, like the centerpiece, ""Hellishly Hot,"" one of the albums pop moments. Similarly, Mägi's guitar tone on the album's pop songs would not be out of place on a Duran Duran album. Since Holy Motors' initial 45s, Lauri Raus's playing has been a study in Morricone-influenced cinematic twang as well as country-leaning psychedelia most akin to The Paisley Underground. On Heaven's Night, bolstered by Magi and Sarapuu, we see his ideas take their ultimate shape. The three guitarists are capable of gentle cascading chimes (""Tough Crush""), searing weaves of twang (""Heaven's Night""), and blissed out plumes of feedback & texture (""God is a Feeling""). Throughout the record, the guitars color in the stories Tulve delivers making them feel more visceral.Without a doubt, Heaven's Night is Holy Motors' most varied album to date. From the furious gallop of ""The Last Ones"" to Tulve's noirish duet with Bambara's Reid Bateh, ""Under My Tongue,"" Heaven's Night throws a new spin on the band's world, one that is a little less haunted and a little more dangerous. These days, we could all use the escape.