Sentimental Craving for Beauty by VEiiLA (Review)
With apologies to VEiiLA, I’ve been meaning to write something about Sentimental Craving for Beauty ever since Projekt Records released it in 2023. But now that singer/guitarist Vif Nüte and keyboardist Bes Eirid have released a “deluxe” edition of Sentimental Craving for Beauty, it seems like a good time to revisit their sophomore album.
This “deluxe” edition features 13 additional tracks, including b-sides and demos as well as several live recordings (which provide ample evidence that VEiiLA isn’t just some studio project). They’re a nice expansion of the original Sentimental Craving for Beauty, which sits comfortably at the nexus of dream pop, trip-hop, downtempo, and goth thanks to Nüte’s seductively detached vocals and languid guitar, Eirid’s lush and subtle synth-work, and lots of noir-ish atmosphere.
(If I do have one criticism of Sentimental Craving for Beauty, the noir-ish atmosphere is almost entirely a uniform shade of gray. That consistent vibe can make for an immersive listening experience. It can also grow a bit monotonous even though individual songs, taken on their own, are filled with intriguing details and rich production.)
Indeed, there are plenty of times when Sentimental Craving for Beauty feels like a long-lost relic from the trip-hop explosion of the late ’90s, when bands like Halou, Lamb, Mono, and Portishead were creating sleek, stylish soundscapes. Which is not a bad thing, mind you. That said, Nüte and Eirid’s status as exiles — originally hailing from Saint Petersburg, Russia, the duo left their homeland in protest of the invasion of Ukraine — imbues VEiiLA’s music with some additional heft.
The band’s stylish-yet-forlorn arrangements and programming are accompanied by lyrics like “But every night I’m searching in my mind/For something I can say/To live another day” (“Another Day”) and “In the oven of my heart/I hope to turn my pain to art/But in the end when I’m alone/I wonder why I’m cold as stone” (“Furnace”) — lyrics that ring with a desperation and sense of alienation that belies the songs’ dreamy vibes. And when Nüte sings “Let me be in my own reality” on “Let Me Be,” it’s no mere solipsism, especially when she observes a world where “hatred rivals reason” and “war is holy.”
VEiiLA’s modus operandi is “we confront absurd with art.” Watching their homeland invade another country whilst sliding into autocracy would certainly contain plenty of absurdity, and it’s clear from interviews that Nüte and Eirid have experienced considerable loss and isolation as a result of their self-imposed exile. It’s to their great credit, then, that they’ve been able to channel and convert their trauma into something as singularly captivating as Sentimental Craving for Beauty.