Fabulous.

That’s the word that keeps coming into the mind as you sit back and process what you’ve just been exposed to as the final notes of Church of The Sea‘s new release, Eva, drift away and into the ether. Vocalist Irene and instrumentalists Vangelis and Alex have simply outdone themselves on the seven sumptuous tracks that make up Eva, demanding you as the listener return again and again to worship at their finely wrought sonic altar. Which you will.

Things take a little while to start making sense – the last three tracks outshine the first four – but when the penny drops you’ll find you can’t stop listening to any of the songs on offer. Instrumentally spartan for the most part – Vangelis relies on guitars drenched in reverb to get his point across, as opposed to brute force riffage, whilst Alex opts for sparse colour from the keys rather than a tsunami of lustre – the real beauty comes from the wondrous voice of Irene, a singer able to transport the listener at the twitch of a golden tonsil.

Part Hope Sandoval, part Siouxsie Sioux, part angel, part devil, she barely raises herself above a murmur for the most part, yet what a murmur it is. On the album’s two masterpieces, Garden of Eden and the closing How To Build A Universe Part II she weaves pure magic with a voice that reaches deep into your psyche and scours your soul. On the latter, in particular, her beautiful use of Eastern melody reminds this reviewer of the great and much missed Ofra Haza – high praise indeed.

Church of the Sea deliver the goods on just about every layer imaginable on Eva, and, with the mix and match approach to stylistics they use turning every track into a delight for the widest possible audience, it’s hard to believe that anybody would find this record actively disagreeable – Mass appeal without artistic compromise is a pretty good sweetspot to hit, and it looks (but more importantly sounds) like COTS have achieved just that with this remarkable offering.

Eva releases on April 11th