photo courtesy of Wiens Lief

Single Review of Wiens Lief: “Better Than Me”

If you’re looking for a throwback to 1960s three-part harmony pop-folk, you’ve come to the right place.

Wiens Lief is a vocal trio with an international pedigree. Tiana Stuart (Austin, Texas), Joëtta Zoetelief (The Netherlands), and Fanni Walla (Hungary) formed Wiens Lief in the winter of 2016 and carved out their musical niche in Amsterdam, performing their self-described dark folk at cafés, house parties, and corporate events around their home base.

image courtesy of Wiens Lief

“Better Than Me” is a sparsely-instrumented, soaring, sophisticated light-pop number with a flower-child-reminiscent harmonic blend of the trio’s voices. They’re not exactly a capella, but this group’s presentation clearly may benefit from the recent rise of such performers, at least to the extent listeners have grown accustomed to this sort of voice-driven, quirky, and not-quite-mainstream song style. How Tiana, Joëtta, and Fanni found each other, with their three voices forming such a pleasingly haunting blend is a fortunate happenstance. I’ve checked out some of the group’s cover songs online, and I can see why they’ve solidified a place within their local music scene. This original song plays even more directly to their vocal strengths and grows on me more with each listen, though I can’t be entirely sure it isn’t simply hypnotizing me into believing it’s one of my favorite new songs.

So if you’re in Amsterdam, keep an eye out for a live performance by these exceptionally talented vocalists. In fact, you can next hear them perform on Thursday, September 21st at De Jonge Admiraal. And if you’re farther afield, grab a name-your-price download of Wiens Lief’s debut single, “Better Than Me.”