Dunedin's Haunted Love create an imposingly pretty folk confection on their new EP Darkness in Diamond City. The three-piece, consisting of Geva Downey and Rainy McMaster and new recruit Logan Valentine shot to a kind of fame when their video to Librarian (see embed below) became something of a low-key YouTube sensation, gathering up 140,000-odd views. A lyric talking about the perils of late returns no doubt endeared itself to librarians the world over, but there's nothing novelty about their bittersweet laments.
The band have been featured on super new releases from The Clean and Dimmer of late, but I'm not at all convinced that they haven't bested them both on the new EP. Darkness in Diamond City received a four star review in September's Real Groove from Stevie Kaye, who compared them favourably with the Magnetic Fields and The Renderers, amongst others.
"Haunted Love's music offers a similar marriage of arch self-awareness and swooning pop arrangements to The Brunettes and The Gladeyes; however their glam ambience and Southern gothic sensibilities take their music to quite different places," he wrote.
The subtle glam sensibilities are certainly evident on Sleepwalkers, which alternates between unnerving verses dominated by Downey's organ and a chorus which breaches the flood banks and rushes over the song, untethered and free.
With the profusion of worthy, but perhaps a little dull, female singer-songwriters this nation churns out, it seems ludicrous that the immaculately executed folk-pop of Haunted Love has yet to find a wider audience. Here's hoping this one will do the trick, because it's one of the best local releases of a vintage year.
Haunted Love – Sleepwalkers (from the Darkness in Diamond City EP. I can't for the life of me figure out where you can buy it, but maybe email the band hauntedlove666[at]gmail.com and hit them up yourself)
To download the song right click (PC) or ctrl click (Mac) the link and choose 'save target as' or 'save link as' from the menu.