EP REVIEW: HOLLOW COVES - BLESSINGS

June 17, 2021 Georgia Sheed

Written from a home studio during the pandemic, this five track EP represents the height of Matt Carin and Ryan Henderson’s music endeavours to date. The album is one of immense gratitude and reverence; for the natural world, for those we love and for the world we lost and found again during the pandemic.

LISTEN TO ‘BLESSINGS’ EP HERE

‘Blessings’, the opening track of the EP begins with a lone guitar. In true Hollow Coves style, the instrumentals are bare and natural, with the content of the lyrics reflecting this further. The track invokes the feeling of eye watering gratitude, urging the listener to look closer at their own lives and the abundant sources of joy in it. The layered vocal lines give the impression of ascension, of reaching beyond the corporeal.

‘Evermore’ follows a similar line to ‘Blessings’, beginning again with a solo guitar. It is a song of immense love, with harmonisation providing a sense of depth and unity between the listener and the track. The introduction of percussion in the latter half of the track and the soaring vocals brings the listener along into the love and longing the song conveys.

The EP takes a turn in tone at ‘From the Second Floor’, giving for the first time the sense of isolation we all experienced at some point over the last year. This is followed by ‘Hello’ which gives the impression of a song being sung into a void, or as a kind of letter to someone who can stem the loneliness of lock down. The subdued vocals and simple instrumentals give the listener a sense of the sameness of the duo’s surroundings, and the desire to re-enter the world as they remembered it.

‘Lonely Nights’, with accompanying vocals of Priscilla Ahn, rounds out the EP with a return to the small blessings found in the upheaval and sameness of the last year. The track is steeped in a love of people and place, bidding the listener a farewell with the promise of return.

Overall, the EP showcases Hollow Coves capacity to convey mood, emotion, and a sense of place through simple instrumentals and layered vocals. It pays homage to the shared experience of people through the pandemic, holding space for the physical and emotional turmoil we have all experienced. Their respect for nature is, as always, evident in their lyrics. It conveys the admiration, awe and ease that comes to those who look to the natural world for guidance and comfort in troubling times.