By Elizabeth Payne

CLOVES, the Australian-born singer-songwriter who burst onto the music scene when appearing on season two of The Voice Australia, has released a new single, ‘Graveyard.' She took a page out of many women in music by writing and producing the song by herself to give the song the justice and production she wanted to portray. 

CLOVES presents an atmosphere of Live Lounge production, stripping it down to her voice and electric guitar. Yet she uses her voice creatively, isolating it to create levels of texture through echoes that reverberate in the background. Fans of Lana Del Rey will recognise the same slow, sombre, and soft tones in CLOVES’ vocals, but her range is more reminiscent of the likes of Adele and Amy Winehouse. CLOVES can also create an atmosphere of storytelling by using breathy phrases, as if in conversation with someone. This emphasises the lyrics, which present a multi-layered narrative evocative of a love letter to an old lover. 

It is this story-telling that makes this new release from CLOVES so powerful. We are taken on a journey between two individuals who used to be lovers. The bittersweet story of the fall of a relationship and the realisation that sometimes you are better off without them. This is reflected in the instrumental section, which CLOVES uses to create a sense of transition in the relationship whilst singing “The Graveyard Hours” – hauntingly symbolic of the doomed romance.