by Devin Birse (@devvvvi.b)
Echoing between the past and present, Evergreen In Your Mind is a tender yet rarely fragile album. Juni Habel’s third record is a sophisticated piece of modern folk, equally rooted in the intimate and the psychedelic. A sense of wintery warmth froths over her campfire sound to create a distinctly more strident work. Habel's voice gently guides the listener through a realm somewhere between the real and the imagined, blending nostalgia and the troubles of the present into something that is somehow timeless in sound but out of time in its dimensions. Her sound is vibrant, but does not necessarily soothe the listener so much as induce a haze, out of place with both the churning gears of modernity and the usual pastoral of traditional folk. Instead, it resembles a dream, a moment outside of consciousness's reach, floating, before disappearing gently.
The core lead through the mist remains Juni’s voice. Gentle yet confident in its wistfulness, she strikes an equal pose as both guide and lost soul. There’s a similarly guiding timber to Vashti Bunyan, and like her, Habel scopes out a distinct pastoral world. The slight tilts and drones of her word begin to induce a mild trance, especially when paired with her delicate fingerpicking.
That guitar work, with its twisting lines and spry rhythms, conveys a sense of play. The almost American-primitivist bend embodies “Pearl Cloud Song,” and showcases the album's spirit. The playing contains elements of the nostalgic and ethereal, while managing to not lean too hard into the clichés of either. This isn’t a piece of sentimental pastoral nor an abstract haze of psychedelia, rather, it’s a collection of songs intimate in both sound and oddity.
That intimacy comes from a variety of factors. At points, it’s the stripped-back closeness. “Tessa” is a beautiful piece of loner-folk, with Habel's guitar and vocals tilting and moving in unison. The album is laden with these moments, small choices that open these tender songs, like the subtle percussion that skitters across “Stand So Still” or the gradually layered vocals on “Sage.” This is excellently written folk after all, filled with moments that tilt between the tender and the unnerving.
Habel has stepped away from typical methodologies. Fire-side folk and live-like sound are reshaped into a collection of songs that feel uncanny yet sweet. There’s a similarity to the off-kilter sensations of early Jessica Pratt or the haunted tape intimacies of the recently released Broadcast demos, but Habel holds and moves emotion in a way that defies easy comparison. The sound is recognizable in its immediate aesthetics but distant in its details.
The songs themselves are excellent. Habel has assembled a brilliant track list that shifts from bittersweet to wistful with charm. Habel's main strengths as a songwriter remain firmly on display from the gentle melancholia of “Another Hugh,” to the curious mysteries of “Evergreen In Your Mind.” Both tracks are richly detailed, with lyrical intricacies and melodic tricks lying hidden behind multiple listens. Even her lyrical approach reflects the greater sound, its blend of clipped personal mantras and surreal imagery renders her words relatable yet ambiguous.
Habel has already more than proved herself as an excellent singer-songwriter, but with Evergreen In Your Mind, she’s revealed herself to be a subtly singular artist. Her blend of ethereal psychedelia may at points share similarities with classics like Perhacs Parallelograms or modern innovators like Anastasia Coope, but the dimensions of the project come together unlike anything else. An exquisite record that resembles a gorgeous yet odd flower perpetually in bloom. With each listen, the petals seem to move further open, but what really lies inside remains still out of sight, no matter how closely you look.