There’s no chance to get completely comfortable – read, bored – with Favorite Bell. It warrants your attention, as you’re rewarded richly for taking notice of the changes in speed, tone, and genre across the ten songs.
There’s a real tension between experimental folk and your more traditional indie sensibilities that Davia manages to hold so well that you’re never tipped into either. It’s easy, and perhaps lazy, to draw parallels with other quirky American female singers like Tori Amos or Regina Spektor, because while Davia fits into their space she’s also very much in her own world. This is voice and musicianship that is exactly what pop music needs – full of actual personality, delivered with a dollop of pizzazz. Favorite Bell is Davia’s debut album, recorded just before the world shut down for the global pandemic lockdown and finally released in early 2021, on digital only.
Davia’s playing and singing style keep you guessing. It’s dynamic. No, it’s dynamite. Whether playing violin, guitar, or performing soaring vocal acrobatics, she can do them all with aplomb. Her stories are what draw you in and hold you in a fantasy world she creates with her music, a place that you want to explore deeper and further. They captivate the listener. You couldn’t second guess where a song will go, you are along for the ride. Nowhere better are all these parts of Davia’s talents showcased than on tracks such as Pluto, Pluto, and Father.
On quieter tracks, such as Iscariot, you really get to hear what this young woman is capable of. The composition seems simple, yet her use of instrumentation and percussive effects, alongside her clever lyrical phrasing, lifts it way beyond your standard indie folk song. And that unique and quirky phrasing carries through to the album’s penultimate track Fig Tree. As an album, Favorite Bell feels timeless, despite being less than three years old at the time of writing. I’ve been listening to this album for quite some time and every time I stream it on her Bandcamp page (oh, to have it on vinyl!), I am never quite sure why it hasn’t (yet) got the wider attention it deserves. Let’s rectify that.
It’s an Unspun Hero for sure. Right now, we can only anticipate what’s next for Davia, but on this showing I think we’re in good hands.