On
Virginia Wing s fourth full-length, the album s themes of isolation, dealing with trauma, and mental wellbeing reflect a collective despair that we are all feeling after a year without spontaneous human interactions. Right now, it feels like all our lives are private â the self that we show to others being just a preselected snapshot mediated through feeds and computer screens. Â
Having made Ecstatic Arrow in alpine Switzerland s picturesque setting in 2018, the Manchester trio had to settle on working from home like the rest of us did in 2020. Despite this, Private Life is testimony to the remarkable things one can achieve in times of crisis: Virginia Wing have produced one of the most fearless pop records of not only 2021 but the past few years. Glossier and more tumultuous than its predecessor, the band s idiosyncratic roots haven t been compromised, thanks to the dense, multi-layered arrangements and sporadic moments of strange, futuristic magic.Â
7.5/10
It’s a crazy world; as we’ve become more isolated, social media has become a forum for people to share every detail, opinion and non-event that happens to them, a state in which you can often feel more voyeur than follower.
Virginia Wing’s last album, Ecstatic Arrow, was recorded with the Swiss Alps as a backdrop. This time however, the group – now a trio following the addition of Christopher Duffin – took the only available course of action left to them by recording, ‘at home, in our tracksuit bottoms’.
Their collective mission according to singer Alice Merida Richards was to make, in ‘private LIFE’, something unique from 2020’s nightmarescape of recurring existential dread, whilst distilling into its fabric influences ranging from Prince to Timbaland to The Slits.
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The Vinyl District
February 18, 2021
Part three of the TVD Record Store Club’s look at the new and reissued releases presently in stores for February 2021. Part one is here and part two is here.
NEW RELEASE PICK: V/A,
Brighter Days Ahead (Colemine) As was the case with most of us, when the pandemic-related reality of 2020 became fully evident, Loveland, Ohio’s Colemine Records found it necessary to shift focus. Instead of following through with a hefty release schedule, owner-operator Terry Cole began offering individual tracks from acts affiliated with Colemine and Karma Chief Records and placing them under the thematic
Bernie Brooks
, February 16th, 2021 09:14
Virginia Wing talk to Bernie Brooks about music as a coping mechanism, training the press, and making a 2020 record Well, you know what? I ve been vaccinated, says Virginia Wing s Alice Merida Richards. Yeah, I got it done like last week. In the UK, they re doing it for national treasures, she laughs.
At this point, who wants to hear about 2020, the year that won t die? We re all drained and depleted. Everyone is so, so tired. And yet, here we are, in 2021, awash with pressers for records recorded during lockdown, records inevitably about 2020, about trauma and healing. Still, the COVID-19 pandemic is the first thing I reflexively bring up and the first thing we talk about as Virginia Wing - the avant-pop trio of Richards, Sam Pillay, and Christopher Duffin - get settled into their practice space for the first time in quite a while. It s the new small talk. Everyone can relate.