7/10

On their long-awaited debut album 'Imaginary Songs', Amsterdam's Von Veh deliver a record that feels like a continuous emotional document. Across its nine songs, the band lean into lived experience with an unfiltered edge, allowing each moment to carry its own weight without softening the impact.

Opening track 'Unreal' immediately establishes the album’s tone, capturing the strange detachment that can follow emotional upheaval. It’s a fitting entry point that sets up a record that rarely offers clear footing.

That push and pull continues with 'Perpetuum', where the past lingers stubbornly, shaping the present in ways that feel difficult to shake. There’s a sense throughout that memory seems to move, interfere, and reappear when least expected. This idea is explored more explicitly in the closer 'Underscore', where older ambitions and unresolved emotions resurface, blurring the line between what was and what still is.

Perhaps the most striking moment arrives with 'All Evidence', a track that narrows its focus to a specific encounter while expanding into something more ambiguous. It captures the uneasy space between certainty and doubt; how easily perception can shift, even when intentions feel clear. From there, previously released single 'Floating' brings a more melodic immediacy, its openness contrasting with the tension beneath the surface.

Musically, the album remains grounded in indie-rock, but with enough variation to keep it from settling into repetition. Guitars move between clean and textured tones, occasionally recalling the dynamic contrasts associated with Wolf Alice, while the rhythm section keeps everything anchored.

Vocals are delivered with a directness that suits the material. There’s little sense of performance for its own sake; instead, the emphasis is on clarity and emotional honesty. And that approach gives the record its cohesion, tying together its varied themes into something that feels unified.

'Imaginary Songs' ultimately works because it doesn’t attempt to tidy up its subject matter. Through the release, Von Veh allow contradiction and uncertainty to exist side by side. It’s a measured, grounded record that finds its strength in observation rather than resolution.