Native Harrow: Happier Now review – Languid, wistful and interested in love

American names have an unusual habit of manifesting as a collection of sounds. Devin Tuel, the lead singer of Native Harrow, is in possession of one such name, and Native Harrow is not much better. Though it does not do to judge a band solely on its name: their third album, Happier Now, is a languid, wistful, nine-track folk record interested in love, longing and belonging.

The band is Tuel on vocals and her deft, multi-instrumentalist bandmate Stephen Harms. Her voice is extraordinary: a liquid drawl that is well suited to the genre — and he is a magician.

On the album’s lead single, Can’t Go on Like This, a ballad of resignation, she trills like a less hopeless Joni Mitchell. How Do You Do Things is melancholic, exasperated, but with an eyebrow cocked (“I lie awake at night wondering / How do you rise each morning / Look yourself in the mirror and say / I’m doing the best I can today.”)

There’s more edge in Hard to Take, a hard-knocks tale with blues inflections (“The getting up is getting harder /The falling down is lasting longer.”) Something You Have captures the siren song of the lover who’s no good for you. Rich, moody folk. What’s in a name?