Belave: ‘to wash all over’ or ‘to refresh, strengthen oneself, rest’
Belaver: ‘one who washes over’ or ‘one who is refreshing in rest’
We first wrote about B.E. Godfrey’s Belaver project back in October, describing how his music “explor[es] the dark and dingy corners of the human experience” with its off-kilter, noir-ish retro pop aesthetic. After a series of singles, this month sees the release of the debut Belaver album, True Love of Crime—a record which draws upon everything from goth and electronic to the alt-country of Bill Callahan to create a strange, melancholic world.
We’re drawn into this sphere immediately with opening track ‘Prisoner’, the wistful strum and ambient textures heralding Godfrey’s distinctively downbeat vocals. There’s a touch of Say Hi in ‘Partners’, a song about how even the most hardened or volatile criminals need a getaway driver, while ‘Doer’ ups the synths to create a glassy soundscape, its spacious style populated with a variety of warm and playful flourishes as the lyrics explore identity in the face of addiction.
Oh no
I think I did it again
I might have done that thing againDon’t go
Yeah I might never quit
but what am I without it?
The more upbeat elements are stripped away on the minimal ‘Swimmer’, Godfrey channeling Phil Elverum in his wordy delivery, though details begin to bleed through as the track develops, highlighting one of Belaver’s true strengths in the ability to present isolation and loneliness with an almost transcendental air. The Elverum comparison stands for ‘Grave Robber’ too, which provides what we previously called “a cross between Mt. Eerie and Monarch Mtn—twilit and noir-ish, traipsing through ancient catacombs and holding a torch to whatever dusty relics are found.”
After the interlude of ‘Dancer’, which is something like Owen Ashworth soundtracking a Twin Peaks VHS, ‘Vampire’ arrives in all of its theatrical horror. Accompanied by a video from Dustin M Reid, the song is for all the things moving through the darkness, lurking in shadows and lunging at those unfortunate enough to stray from the path.
The retro weirdness is dialed to ten on closing track ‘Driver’, a creeping neon-dripped reach for something new or different. Acting as an encapsulation of the Belaver aesthetic, the sound is undeniably downbeat, imagining a series of possible futures that range from disastrous to ridiculous, though a thin seam of hope perseveres. However fatalistic the song might be, it is never purely pessimistic, remaining as open to the dice landing favorably as it is to the inevitable set of snake eyes. The track comes complete with a video from Che Houston, starring Harvey Kaufman as a news anchor intent on revealing Belaver’s shady past, a film-grained view of backwards memories and past events, not to mention our relationship with the unending fascination with images
Oh say, can you believe what I see?
I see our bodies, exploding
Do you really think if we keep driving
we’ll break free of the barricade?
True Love of Crime is out now and you can get it from a variety of Belaver pages.