Estonian outfit Holy Motors have shared their second album “Horse”. Like other album cuts, “Trouble” packs twang and sparkle. Eliann Tulve’s dreary vocals cascade over warbling vibrato guitars, and it’s clear that this is a song of the night, but not one of playful roguery—this is for stargazing and cycling through one’s hopes and fears.
A Stunning ode to America, country music a wilder west, and a world HOLY MOTORS have been enraptured in all along.
Out today on all digital formats, Holy Motors’ Horse — the more hopeful follow-up to the band’s stunning 2018 debut, Slow Sundown — further reveals the unique influences that led to the formation of this enigmatic band of ex-Soviet cowboys.
From the album’s opening moments, songs like the rollicking ‘Country Church,’ with its classic rhythm and blues guitarline, and ‘Road Stars,’ a duet steeped in country twang, hint at the shared infatuation with the American West that band members developed waiting out their native Estonia’s long, grim winters with the warm company of western films. Meanwhile, the darkly abstract lyrics on like those found on ‘Trouble,’ and the slinking melodies that drive tracks like ‘Matador’ bridge the gap between Horse’s eight songs and the band’s prior work.
As a whole, while Horse is equals parts more complex and more human than any of Holy Motors‘ releases to date, showcasing a band that becomes harder to define even as we learn more about them.
“Trouble” is from the album ‘Horse’ out on 16th October.
