The Daily Spin II

School of Seven Bells | SVIIB

Welcome back to the Daily Spin. For the uninitiated, this is the series in which I review an album every day of 2025.

As was the case two years ago, my favorite song from each album can be found at the playlist linked here.

Album: SVIIB (2016)

Artist: School of Seven Bells

Link:

Rarely am I so struck by an album as I have been by SVIIB, the fourth (and likely last) effort from School of Seven Bells. Frontman Benjamin Curtis passed of sudden-onset lymphoma in 2013, three years before the posthumous release of this work via the efforts of his creative partner, Alejandra Deheza, to see this brought to fruition.

It’s a wonderful thing this record does get to see the light. Made all the more impactful by the context, each of these songs is gorgeous without getting expansive - even the lowest of the bunch by my mark, ‘Confusion’, finds itself there through the product of a missed mood, but every track here feels so artfully positioned as to work your emotions and wring them dry.

As a final statement, as a eulogy, and as a passionate declaration of the goodness of caring, SVIIB touches on so many of those buttons that make music worthwhile.

Rating: 9/10

Best Tracks: On My Heart

Worst Tracks: Confusion