The Soft Hills - Viva Chi Vede (2022)

Some musicians are so adept at translating sound into beauty that we can forget just how exceptional their gift is, even over the course of a single album. Since the first Soft Hills EP appeared in December of 2008, bandleader Garrett Hobba has reliably delivered songs that engulf the listener in their grip. It didn’t take long for Hobba to prove himself as an artist we should think of less as someone who merely writes songs and more as someone who channels transcendence via his fingertips. And he’s only gotten more skilled over time, steadily working at his unique amalgamation of folk, pop and indie rock. As one of his key defining features, Hobba often strains those core genre elements through a dreamlike psychedelic filter that suggests he has more in common with the high-def, “cinematic” mindset of space rock than his influences might indicate.

It comes as no great surprise, then, that Hobba and company further perfect their already-sublime sound on Viva Chi Vede, the seventh Soft Hills full-length. Never mind the fact that the lyrics center around a moment of profound internal crisis that Hobba managed to work through—The Soft Hills can bring you to your knees with sound alone. It takes them all of about 15 seconds this time, as opener “Medicine” begins with a quintessential Hobba acoustic guitar figure—unassuming, seemingly unremarkable, and yet somehow loaded with emotion—backed by a gorgeously eerie background hum. Drummer Garrit Tillman’s part and Hobba’s enter the scene together, Tillman’s spry beat bouncing along as Hobba harmonizes with himself, singing, “Please bring me my medicine.”