Artist: The Cold Field
Title: Hollows
Genre: Coldwave / Darkwave
Release Date: 6th August 2021
Label: Cold Transmission Music
Review Flash
Coldwave and Australia are perhaps not obvious bed-fellows, but then, that’s stereotypes for you. I’ve never met an unhappy Scandinavian but… well… Black Metal and all that. So, putting aside the fact that THE COLD FIELD are in fact a duo from Adelaide, second album ‘Hollows’ shrouds itself very much in the foggy vapours of THE KVB, THE SOFT MOON and a host of similarly troubled-sounding earnest young men. These songs were handpicked from about 40, written during a spell of hospitalisation, which does add to the overall sense of gloom, frustration and defiance, and the fractured vocals on opener ‘Ride The Breeze’ give an eerie glimpse into some medically induced half-conscious state. Scampering about like the cocktail of drugs is all wrong, ‘We Don’t Know’ is exhausting and intense, and ‘She Bathes’ flits from dark to light with an airy ease that’s surprising amongst the dense layers found elsewhere on ‘Hollows’. By ‘You Walk Away’ the early THE CURE drums and swirl of guitars and synths begins to wear thin – this really has been done a thousand times before, although closer ‘Into The Light’ is possibly more JOY DIVISION than JOY DIVISION, a marriage of sombre, driven dark rock and a restrained prettiness of melody that works surprisingly well.
Conclusion: Definitely darkly nestled in the safety of the genre’s bosom, this is a solid enough album that will satisfy the cold-wave craving while never challenging it… but then presumably that was the aim, so all is well.
Rating: 8 / 10
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