Veda Hille

Just as she seems to need Jesus, the world needs Vancouver, BC’s Veda Hille. To clarify, Hille’s most extraordinary new record, This Riot Life, was inspired by her study of the scriptures during a period of personal reflection. Far from meditative or devotional, This Riot Life is chock full of lush, glorious musical arrangements and inscrutably written songs that burst into full Technicolor in your brain. It’s all done with class rather than impertinently plying acts, as an accomplished 12-piece band, drawn from various musical scenes and disciplines, cohere to create majestic pieces organically. A faint pizzicato leads to a lovely bed of voices on "Lucklucky,” which soars so far it inexplicably tweaks the Hockey Night in Canada theme teasingly. With its impassioned imagery, "Ace of the Nazarene” needs to thunder and hail but it’s still an unlikely Hille rocker, while a version of "The Moon” features wondrous layers of strings and piano. From the Mexican desert swing of "Rose of Sharon” to the choral force of "Constance,” Hille exhibits both rare vision and brave execution on the heartening This Riot Life.