The new release from Virginia Wing is most likely the band's most accessible yet. And still, it's a daring, risky undertaking, and the kind of release which blurs the lines between genres with ease. Out now via Fire Records, Private LIFE is one of the highlights of this week's slate of new records.
"Out for Something" bursts with energy, a bubbly confection, before things go to the jazz end of the spectrum on "Soft Fruit" and other tracks here with similarly insistent rhythmic effects. "99 North" is a throwback delight, shades of Tom Tom Club and (early) Bananarama (of all things) here. If Alice Merida Richards and Sam Pillay are unlikely to ever have the radio hits of those acts, they seem content instead to focus on injecting a brash sense of fun into what is rather risky music. Elements of New Wave jostle against art rock and a listener hears something like "Lucky Coin" and feels a sense of something pulling one away from the everyday.
Private LIFE is the most confident record yet from Virginia Wing. And while some of this will still earn comparisons to acts like Goldfrapp and Yazoo, so much more of this record seems to be mapping its own style. What's here is accessible but starkly Artistic, a neat blending of the avant and the pop that seems impressive. Not since the days of Fad Gadget and The Associates have we heard an artist move between those styles so easily without sacificing any power.
Private LIFE is out now via Fire Records.
[Photo: Fire Records]