“Your knives are sharp when you put them in my heart / Though the truth, you’d say, is I like them there that way.”

So begins “The Wild Son,” the opening track to the Veils’ debut LP, Runaway Found (2004), and one of my favorite lyrical first impressions to date. For a band that would shortly disband after their initial album’s release, who knew the Veils would reform under a different lineup, fronted by lead singer Finn Andrews, to such wide acclaim?

The New Zealand group’s efforts are extolled ad nauseum everywhere I turn, and while I enjoyed their latest effort, Nux Vomica (2006), there will always be a soft spot in my heart for that moment when I first listened to “The Wild Son” and heard Andrews sing those still-haunting words:

“Darling I need you far more than I say / None of my fears are as dear to me.”

Grammatically correct? No. Poignant to the point of tears? You bet. With sweeping strings and other grand gestures, a chorus of earnest, love-blinded fools, and one of the most heartbreakingly concise lyrics to grace these ears, what else could I ask of these Kiwis?

How about a darling waltz born of piano and pining? “Lavinia” is a testament to the Veils’ ability to craft songs that are majestic without being bombastic, extraordinary without being flamboyant. “I find it so hard to survive without when within you,” croons Andrews over a bed of bitterly strummed steel, his brow barely cooled by the swaying strings riding the sea breeze. He’s hard to understand at times, but from what I can tell it seems as good a time as any for incoherency. After all, if Andrews’ wails halfway through the track weren’t enough of an indication, the song is a lament.

But that was 2004. Now there’s “Calliope!” and a proclamation that simultaneously rings true for the band as well as the song’s object of interest: “My love, you’ve come such a long way with no one to comfort you or tell you you’re needed.”

They’re telling you now, though, Veils, and so am I.

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