SVIIB

It’s a fully-realized vision of the dreamy shoegaze-pop they’d sought to prefect for years.

It's simply stunning.

The whole thing is put together with such love that nothing ever feels like a burden, nor an obligation. First and foremost, this is an LP which can be enjoyed by anyone. You don’t need to know the album’s backstory to be swayed by its charm.

SVIIB is an utterly beautiful piece of work that is all about finding joy and hope in even the darkest of times. Supported by bold synth pop tunes in their own right, it's a record that you're unlikely to forget.

SVIIB is not only the group’s most technically accomplished work, their perfected swan song--it feels true.

While every song here makes note of the relationship at the center of School of Seven Bells, this is not a downbeat album. Instead, it's a record that showcases everything the band is about.

A moving synth-pop paean to the pair’s powerful relationship and a fitting finale to their School of Seven Bells project.

The group’s sound has progressed to include ethereal synths, suited to the spiritual subject matter. Deheza’s soothing, breathy voice sits atop this sound as if she’s trying to comfort Curtis about their relationship in songs like “Open Your Eyes” and “On My Heart,” and about his cancer diagnosis in “Confusion.” This album highlights a connection between the two that goes beyond death.

These are stadium-sized songs under a lone spotlight, and a stunning tribute to a light that went out far too soon.

Minimalist repetition turns into pop certitude, and the arrangements--sorting out the many tracks Mr. Curtis recorded--set aside the buzzy, abrasive keyboard tones of the group’s 2012 album, “Ghostory,” for a sonic vocabulary of reverberation and depth, of optimistic promise.

It ends School of Seven Bells in moving form and suggests a new and vital start for Deheza.

School of Seven Bells can rest assured that this final project will resonate for years to come.

Packed with brilliance, ambition and warmth, SVIIB may be the full stop on the band’s work together, but it’s an album that will stand as the perfect goodbye.

There is not one weak track on here. [Jan/Feb 2016, p.58]

It's an artful and lyrically dense synth-pop LP. [Mar 2016, p.96]

SVIIB is a memorial, yes, but it's a glorious one. [Mar 2016, p.107]

The result is typically elegant and--perhaps surprisingly, given the circumstances--uplifting work about the affairs of the heart. [Mar 2016, p.80]

It's hard not to get emotional. Cavernous drums and multi-layered vocals characterise 'Open Your Eyes', which has the ambitious sweep of classic 80s pop (think Berlin) and, with glacial, droning chords and Deheza's quivering, velvety vocals, the beatless 'Confusion' may well reduce you to mush.

Deheza and Curtis make nothing droopy or lachrymose here. The energy of the original demos--again, a broadcast from a time before Curtis knew he was sick--save the album from being, strictly speaking, morose.

SVIIB is a fitting eulogy for a musician and a band ever connected with both.