Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland-based singer-songwriter Violet Hirst's sometimes demanding but frequently absorbing alt-folk debut. Photo / Supplied
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland-based singer-songwriter Violet Hirst's sometimes demanding but frequently absorbing alt-folk debut. Photo / Supplied
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland-based singer-songwriter Violet Hirst opens this sometimes demanding but frequently absorbing alt-folk debut with Oh Honey. The first words are “my heart is crying for this song”, and the last, “these wounds quiet the room”.
Her delivery ensures both are true, and much of what follows are songsabout songs, and lyrics weighted with gnawing absence.
Recorded in Cromwell with a small group, on the album Hirst lays bare a fragmented relationship on Brave Me (“if I could write you know that I’d write laden with beauty”), the cabaret-like Descending Song with skeletal bass and drums (“please don’t leave yet, believe in us”), the gorgeous doom of Dissolve Like Salt (“I’m holding on to someone who doesn’t exist”), the lyrical simplicity of Please Write Home and others among these emotionally excoriating, frequently first-person singular songs that all come from a similar sentiment.
Hirst’s keening vocal is unleashed on Alternate Ways to Pray (“I know you don’t care too much, but singing by yourself gets dull”) and the impressive Counting Days.
The intimate nature of Donegal – there’s a piano instrumental Merry Christmas For Now with a conversation-cum-argument in the background – invites compassion, but can equally be eavesdropping on hurts and the hope of healing.
Donegal by Violet Hirst is available digitally and on cassette.
