Expanding from a duo to a trio, complete with saxophone, the Manchester group embraces newfound production gloss without sacrificing its indie-pop roots.
It isn’t immediately obvious that
private LIFE, Virginia Wing’s fourth album, is their most engaging album to date. Anyone might think it’s ‘just’
Ecstatic Arrow Mk. 2 – and neither artist nor listener would be to blame, given how the Manchester group’s 2018 release represents such a strident leap forward that it would be inadvisable to do anything too off-piste for the follow-up.
The two LPs are linked by a similar strain of ‘fourth world’ production, covertly masking what is essentially pop in the avant tradition of Peter Gabriel. Vocalist Alice Merida Richards’ speak-sing approach fits the bill too, sitting at a Laurie Anderson monotone until errant emotions permit a melodic flight to the upper register, complementing her lyrical desire for escape.
Patrick Clarke
, January 29th, 2021 12:00
The new year brings a continuation of old miseries, but a resurgence of extraordinarily good music. Here s our guide to the best albums and tracks of a particularly strong month
I m not sure why, but in a year so far as disastrous as the last, in which musicians fortunes continue to plummet to the point that total collapse looms as a real possibility, the art they ve been releasing sounds stronger than ever.
From Sleaford Mods blistering career-best new album, to anti-colonialist duo Divide And Dissolve s unbelievably powerful cascades of crushing doom, to The Body s latest head-melting extremity, music has provided plenty of necessary catharsis.