Raveloe is a Scottish singer songwriter based in Glasgow. AKA Kim Grant, Raveloe is currently signed to Olive Grove Records — a Scottish, independent record label that’s harbored some of the country’s most endearing new artists, including Carla J. Easton and Jo Mango. Her debut EP was released just earlier this year with tracks like “Steady” inviting listeners into her chasm of sound that already stands out among the Scottish scene. Her latest release, “Catkins,” is another mark on the height chart for Raveloe that’s growing noticeably taller with every release.
“’Catkins’ is about the nature of time and change,” Raveloe said in a press release. “It is also largely connected with moving through and beyond trauma and pain by showing yourself compassion, learning to be honest with yourself and others and processing it layer by layer.”
Raveloe’s folk tendencies come to the fore in “Catkins” – the track’s title taken from fluffy buds that grow on weeping willows, which she spotted through her hallway window. Staccato rhythms on acoustic guitar and bass hold the fore while Raveloe’s vocals float with a soothing softness throughout. Tinges of her Scottish accent pepper the track, giving it character and warmth among some of its more existential talking points: “She bears a burden that / Can’t be undone / Until she’s returned to / The place it begun.”
Drifting energies and intensities shift from chorus to verse. The track’s pop structure allows Raveloe’s guitar skills to take center stage in its instrumental section. Delicately picked acoustic guitar melodies pair with heavy reverbs and delays on electric to create a dream-like atmosphere; a sound bath of calm that forms the antithesis for the high-energy, concluding chorus that follows.
Where Notes and Dreams introduced us to Raveloe in a lo-fi aesthetic, “Catkins” takes a step forward from this realm into wider soundscapes and, with it, more musical possibilities. Raveloe’s potential is dotted out with the songs already lying in her lyric books. If more like “Catkins” jump off those pages and into real life, that potential is surely bound to gleam ever brighter.