Back in 1999, I attended a ten-day outdoor music festival in County Cork, Ireland. It was a thing of wonder with an eclectic range of top acts performing around ponds, lakes, under trees, and in tents situated down long winding footpaths, miles from anywhere. It was there that I discovered Canadian singer/songwriter Veda Hille. Every year or two I contact Hille to ask whether there’s a new release available for review. I should of course explain that I love this lady’s work, and that she has a very distinctive and original sound when communicating the most poetic songs. I contacted here recently to discover that there had been a couple of releases, including this, her latest work. It’s beautiful…

RETURN OF THE KILDEER houses eighteen haunting songs, largely about the world she (and we) inhabit, and the people with which she coexists. She possesses a natural voice with a wide range; that sounds homespun, but able to whisper and suddenly burst forth wickedly; a voice with instrumental qualities, quite unique and utterly compelling. Hille also plays a number of instruments. And all these qualities are on show here, including of course her ability to write the most, melodic poetic music, in what I feel is one of her best albums to-date, and sonically the most diverse.

Most of the songs here are less than three-minutes long, and range from the one-minute twenty-three second, charming opener A Fine Start to the mellow piano led four-minute beauty, Bad Heart. Sonic backdrops are diverse, as in Queen Of May with its proliferation of percussive sounds, and shattering burst of snare drum. The next track, Bedlam boasts a threatening bass line with scratched guitar and kettle drum. The list of instruments is extensive and includes: bottles, bells, whistles, washing machine, autoharp, bicycle pump, clock, ukulele, jaw harp, pots and pans, woodblocks, jingle bells, wine glasses, in addition to many more conventional instruments. Now while this may sound as though this is a very experimental record, it is not. In fact nothing could be further from the truth. There is something very traditional about the music Hille plays. Liza Jane is in fact a traditional song that opens gently with piano in support. The song builds gradually in intensity until the essence of it is revealed in the most dramatic way, with Hille almost spitting our the lyrics in disgust, backed by an equally scornful brass section.

“I approached this album like this was the last Veda Hille record I was ever going to record,” she says. “You would think when I looked at the album that way, it would have made things more intense. But it didn’t; in fact, it really helped ease the tension. And the way the band played the music was like it was just tossed off. I didn’t worry about it. But as soon as I was done the record, I was already thinking about the next one. I just signed a three-record deal. I’m not going to stop. I am not allowed to stop.”

RETURN OF THE KILDEER features some of Hille’s favourites among the material she’s written over the past four years, including a series of songs about East Vancouver and commissioned work she’s done for theatre projects in her home city. But this time out, she made the rather daring decision to not sing all of the songs. “One of the major differences is that I used different vocalists,” she says. “I didn’t sing leads on five of the songs. I think the first reason I did this is because I’m more into musical theatre, and I like the idea of having different voices in the songs. The second reason is that I love mixtapes. My husband makes awesome mixtapes, mix CDs. I like the flux of hearing different vocalists.”

The end result is a very special, moving and unique musical experience, from one of the world’s leading ‘underground’ singer/songwriters. If you love the genre, do yourself a favour and buy this record, it won’t leave your player for months… Essential.

5/5