Building on her previous alternative indie releases that explore the difficulties and nuances of life’s experiences, Heff Vansaint tells a new emotional and contemplative story about memories, the past, and change in her latest single, ‘Weavers Fields’.

Vansaint has a clear nostalgia for 80s live indie performances. The song is structured and mixed to present the narratively-led vocal as the focus, with the guitar lines staying supportive rather than elaborate so as not to distract the listener’s attention. Vansaint is also an electrifyingly emotive live performer and it seeps into “Weavers Fields’” melancholia beautifully. The song will be intimately familiar to us all, telling a story of questioning our past, reflecting on our memories, and realizing how time changes us. The analogy of Weavers Fields will hold special value for anyone living in the UK, recalling memories of playing in our downbeat parks – small patches of trimmed grass with a playground to boot and an ever-present council flat skyscraper looming large on the immediate landscape.

The sensation of live performance is baked into the entirety of the song. Whether in the lengthy sibilant reverb that melts onto the instruments, the saturated electric guitar that chugs the song along like a steady train, or the subtle pads of the gentle harmonica filling the space that the guitars not dare occupy, performance is embedded into the experience. While the track brings depth and power to the live sound in the chorus by doubling the vocals, creating a wider stereo placement with the guitars, and adding soft high piano hits with more percussive elements, the versus are however, solemnly lonely.

Despite its emotional appeal and meaningful simplicity, the song feels partly unfinished. This may derive from the somewhat abrupt ending; it may be because the whole piece lacks a sense of development, relying on subtle additional layers being added to provide a sense of momentum and progression; it even feels like part of the story is somehow untold, or unwritten. Is this the intention? Is the track trying to resemble the narrative’s unfinished conclusion? This may be so, but ‘Weavers Fields’ still misses something. The song isn’t quite where it wants to be.

With a compelling vocal performance by Vansaint and an evocative story to make us contemplate our memories, ‘Weavers Fields’ is experienced almost more like a piece of poetic prose than an emotional ballad, and doesn’t quite reach the heights that it longs for.