Keeper Is the Heart

Album review

A longtime violinist and backing vocalist for Mutual Benefit, Eva Louise Goodman launched her solo venture, Nighttime, in 2015 with the self-recorded L'Age d'Or. An album that submerged whispery, ethereal vocals in echo and lo-fi murk, it established a certain druggy, lethargic sensibility that would remain an identifiable feature of the project through recording upgrades. She worked with an engineer on the follow-up, 2018's Hand in the Dark, which substantially reduced the haze and brought a stronger, falsetto-type head voice into play. At the same time, it maintained musical characteristics such as a dreamy, pensive state, a steady stream of minor thirds, and a timeless folk identity inspired by 1960s British folk and a shared suggestion of medieval troubadour song. This haunted quality persists on Nighttime's third album and Ba Da Bing Records debut, Keeper Is the Heart, which finds Goodman expanding both instrumentation and personnel. Still self-produced, Keeper Is the Heart was recorded in upstate New York with engineer Rick Spataro (Florist), who also provided a one-take, improvised Stratocaster solo for "The Way." Truth be told, the song's spooky, layered vocals, noir-shaded guitars, humming synths, bass drone, and unison snare and tambourine (on four) establish quite a dramatic effect even without the softly howling additional guitar line and lyrics like: "Roads take shape/As those things which guide their way/Are hid by night or light by day/Obscure the depths, reveal the shapes." Song titles such as "Feeling the Weeks," "Garden of Delight," and "Across the Ocean of Time" capture a similarly metaphysical mood, while tempos and Mellotron-friendly atmospheres keep listener demands low by occupying a limited range. Even still, tracks including the free-spirited group jam "Garden of Delight" and vulnerable "The Sea" offer just enough variety to keep Nighttime tethered to consciousness.
© Marcy Donelson /TiVo