British indie band, Heavy Heart return with the follow up to their rousing, recent single “Bed Bug”. Their new single, “Dowsabel” is a much more atmospheric, alt-rock song with the band teasing out the melodies, letting the song gradually uncoil to reveal the vibrant, beating heart underneath. Opening with the soft swell of brass before characteristically, wavering guitar notes ripple into the darkness, illuminated by frontwoman Anna Vincent’s restrained yet captivating voice. Impressively, the band build in the space between the notes allowing every beat, chord and syllable sink in for maximum effect.
As the song continues, the intensity builds as if trying to find an escape from the darkness of a locked room. That is until the emotive chorus rips a hole in the wall allowing the light to pour in. With the song concerning the slow, tumbling death of a relationship, the chorus acts a hopeful branch to cling on to – a respite from the fall. The band had this to say about the single and the video which perfectly captures the mood of the song.
“‘Dowsabel’ is an old English word for sweetheart, and this song is about a love affair, but it’s a bittersweet, broken and defeated one. The video was created by David Zbirka of Sunnbrella, who also directed the video for our previous single, ‘Bed Bug’, and uses a montage of vintage Super-8 footage which was shot by David’s grandfather in the 1940s at various locations in what was then Czechoslovakia. The footage includes scenes at a funfair and of a flash flood carrying debris and houses away with it. There was an eeriness to the way the images sat against the music – something lost and long ago, but also very immediate – which seemed to chime perfectly with the melancholy mood of the song”.
“Downsabel” shows a whole different side to the band as they stretch and bend their sound in a hauntingly brilliant, new direction.