Merival is the act led by Toronto’s Anna Hovarth, which first garnered attention with the EP Lovers back in 2016. The record was an intimate and soul-searching exploration of young love and what happens when it goes wrong, and earned Merival significant acclaim. Since then, Hovarth has taken time to herself, honing her craft in folk clubs and dive bars around Toronto. In that time she has slowly pieced together Lesson, the debut full-length Merival album, a collection of songs we described in a preview as “lush and emotive…combin[ing] self-searching introspection with slow-burning catharsis.”
Lesson finds Merival still primarily concerned with relationships, both romantic and familial, and all of the positive and negative effects they can have on our lives. “I’m very curious about how and why we relate to each other as people,” Hovarth describes in an ostensibly simple statement that nevertheless captures the album in all of its complexity.
Nowhere is this better displayed than on single ‘Sinner’. The song “combines the lyricism commonly associated with folk with sparse guitar arrangements and confident vocal delivery,” we explained previously. “The sense of grand emotion is heightened in the track’s second half as elegant strings weave onto the scene, proving that you don’t need to write a sad-sounding song to convey real feeling.” ‘Planting a Garden’ unfurls in an unhurried, almost jazz lounge twirl, while ‘No Brakes’ is a rich and lilting folk song about taking risks and making difficult choices to regain a sense of self. “I’d like to be myself again,” Hovarth sings at the song’s close, “even if it means having no brakes.”
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But Merival isn’t content with making simple pretty folk songs. There’s a enough experimentation and left-field musical choices on Lesson to keep close listeners happy across repeat listens. Built on subtle guitar and twinkling keys, ‘I With Mine’ is a reflective rumination on loss, but one that isn’t quite from this world, Hovarth’s vocals echoing as if from the smoky walls of a dream. ‘Good Enough Again’ too feels a little uncanny, elastic springy guitar twinging and snapping as Hovarth explores her vocal range with expressive warbles and wails.
And the penultimate song also captures something intangible that’s embedded across Lesson as a whole, a kind of paradoxical combo of uncertainty and self-confidence. Merival plumbs the depths of psyche, confronting worries and doubts, but with a sense of strength and assurance that promises it’s possible to strive on ahead anyway, to grow beyond whatever has come in the past.
round and around goes my mind
when will the lights go out?
so I know I am
good enough again
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Lesson is it now and out can get it as an LP or download from the Merival Bandcamp page.
