I mean, like, really good. It’s all very stormily electronic, very brooding and very kinetic. There are a lot of bits which make you go “Heavens above”. A case in point is The Apple, the first single: a bolshy groove which lurches and lollops before a joyously pummelling chorus heaves itself up from the electro-fug and scrawls in foot-high letters on the outside of the Ministry Of Pop: “GUYS I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING NOW AND BY GEORGE IT FEELS GOOD.”
2. Her new album’s also one in the eye for “The Man” and “The General
Public At Large”
Now I’m sure we’ve all done things we’ve regretted in the past. However, most people don’t have their mistakes recorded and then put on general release. Basically, if you work your way into tastemakers’ lists and then the public says, “actually, we’ve had quite enough of this tastefully retro post-Winehouse pop, thanks, we’re ready for synthesizers again”, then that’s pretty much your tilt at pop success done for. (It is the view of this parish that Travelling Like The Light, VV Brown’s 2009 tastefully retro post-Winehouse pop album, was conspicuously not shit, but people at large are completely useless and sadly enough it is people at large who buy records and decide which pop stars are elevated to the elysian fields and which pop stars are left to fight for a 10-minute performance slot after the turning on of Keswick’s Christmas lights. Democracy doesn’t work.) Think of Parade, Daisy Dares You, The Vines: they swung, they missed, they sank. If you get dropped by your label like a hot potato served with jus de smallpox, then you’re not only sunk but wearing concrete galoshes too. If you follow that up with endless promises of a second album which is then shelved indefinitely, you might as well stick your bags in Davy Jones’ locker, get comfy on Davy Jones’ sofa, and book your kids a place at Davey Jones’ Community High School – you’re never coming back from the abyss. You’re irredeemably toxic. Certainly, it looked a bit like VV was going to go that way too, what with the Marks & Spencer’s modelling thing. (Yes, I know Bryan Ferry did it too, but he’s Bryan Ferry. People have got away with murder with worse excuses.) That VV’s album is so ace after a couple of punts to the teeth is a testament to VV’s tenacity and the fact that she pretty obviously loves pop music, which is always an attractive trait in a pop star.
Now I’m sure we’ve all done things we’ve regretted in the past. However, most people don’t have their mistakes recorded and then put on general release. Basically, if you work your way into tastemakers’ lists and then the public says, “actually, we’ve had quite enough of this tastefully retro post-Winehouse pop, thanks, we’re ready for synthesizers again”, then that’s pretty much your tilt at pop success done for. (It is the view of this parish that Travelling Like The Light, VV Brown’s 2009 tastefully retro post-Winehouse pop album, was conspicuously not shit, but people at large are completely useless and sadly enough it is people at large who buy records and decide which pop stars are elevated to the elysian fields and which pop stars are left to fight for a 10-minute performance slot after the turning on of Keswick’s Christmas lights. Democracy doesn’t work.) Think of Parade, Daisy Dares You, The Vines: they swung, they missed, they sank. If you get dropped by your label like a hot potato served with jus de smallpox, then you’re not only sunk but wearing concrete galoshes too. If you follow that up with endless promises of a second album which is then shelved indefinitely, you might as well stick your bags in Davy Jones’ locker, get comfy on Davy Jones’ sofa, and book your kids a place at Davey Jones’ Community High School – you’re never coming back from the abyss. You’re irredeemably toxic. Certainly, it looked a bit like VV was going to go that way too, what with the Marks & Spencer’s modelling thing. (Yes, I know Bryan Ferry did it too, but he’s Bryan Ferry. People have got away with murder with worse excuses.) That VV’s album is so ace after a couple of punts to the teeth is a testament to VV’s tenacity and the fact that she pretty obviously loves pop music, which is always an attractive trait in a pop star.
3. The video for The Apple
In which VV Brown plays a geisha and makes an old Japanese chap young and sexy again with a magic potion. That description doesn’t really do it justice. Just watch it.
In which VV Brown plays a geisha and makes an old Japanese chap young and sexy again with a magic potion. That description doesn’t really do it justice. Just watch it.
4. A brand new V Voice
Gone is sweet, flutey-piped VV Brown. Here instead is a thrusting, assertive yowl, pitched somewhere between Grace Jones’ signature “hello darlings, I’m here and I’m fabulous” mewl, the operatic end of Annie Lennox’s range, and Gandalf when he gets pissed off at Bilbo and says he’s not just some conjuror of cheap tricks and makes the room go all dark and bendy. When VV sings, “Don’t patronise me”, in this new voice, the only response can be, “Righto, won’t be doing any patronising then."
Gone is sweet, flutey-piped VV Brown. Here instead is a thrusting, assertive yowl, pitched somewhere between Grace Jones’ signature “hello darlings, I’m here and I’m fabulous” mewl, the operatic end of Annie Lennox’s range, and Gandalf when he gets pissed off at Bilbo and says he’s not just some conjuror of cheap tricks and makes the room go all dark and bendy. When VV sings, “Don’t patronise me”, in this new voice, the only response can be, “Righto, won’t be doing any patronising then."
5. She can do so much better than modelling for Marks & Spencer anyway
The new album is so good that VV should be aiming for her own line of John Lewis kettles AT THE VERY LEAST.
The new album is so good that VV should be aiming for her own line of John Lewis kettles AT THE VERY LEAST.
