If
the KVB's Nicholas Wood and Kat Day sound more in control of what they're doing on
Only Now Forever than they have in some time, there's a reason: after years recording with others -- including
the Brian Jonestown Massacre's
Anton Newcombe -- Day and Wood returned to working on their own to make their fourth album, spending the better part of 2017 recording in their Berlin apartment. Instead of going further with the synth experiments that informed Mirror Being and
Of Desire, on
Only Now Forever the KVB incorporate a little bit of everything they've learned after almost a decade of making music. Wood and Day sound revitalized on the album's rockers, particularly the insistent opener "Above Us" and "Cerulean," a brisk motorik track that propels the album to its end. The title track is a perfect example of the album's mix of tightly plotted synth rock and shoegaze atmosphere, with looping guitars and beats that distill
Only Now Forever's feeling of balancing a moment with the eternal. Wood and Day expand on that concept with the album's softer songs, which are some of their most evocative: the darkly romantic "Violet Noon" is a slow dance in falling ash, while "On My Skin" is as kinetic as it is sensual. Even if
Only Now Forever isn't as obviously experimental as some of their previous albums,
the KVB still push themselves on "Afterglow"'s aloof synth-glam stomp and the surging, whispery "Into Life," which find Day and Wood edging toward the dancefloor. By consolidating the strengths they've developed over the years on
Only Now Forever,
the KVB deliver their most diverse album yet, and one of their strongest. ~ Heather Phares