Labels: Vested Interest
Review by: Samuel Rogers
Radiant Heart consists of Chris Moore and Celia MacDougall. Both were members of The Blue Period … a band from Nottingham who played jangly emo-rock. As a duo, the pair are doing something a little different. Their 2017 album worked with a sparse acoustic sound, but their new one is a layered, whispering mass of gentle instrumentation and slow, soft folk songs. They trade vocal duties, but their style works best when the pair sing in subdued unison, like two doves gently cooing lullabies. Accompanying their hushed voices are plucked and bowed strings, keys, a sparingly struck tambourine, a glockenspiel, and some other devices of quietude. Lesser bands playing this kind of music might put you to sleep. But at its best, it’s like eavesdropping on Sufjan Stevens rehearsing quietly in the next room.