Album Review

VV Brown – Travelling Like The Light

• 12th Jul 2009

As it often the case for pop vogues, the latest wave of female singer-songwriters creates the problem of individual artists, however interesting and talented they are in themselves, being lumped in with the rest of the scene and accordingly dismissed as flavours of the month. This shouldn’t be an issue for V.V. Brown though, who boasts a sound that truly is unique in the current pop climate as this debut LP shows.

No shrinking violet, V.V. opens with the raucous, retro “Quick Fix”, a 50s rock n roll-sounding pop song, with Brown’s seductive vocals punctuated by joyous shrieks and riding cheekily camp riffage. Two tracks later “Shark in the Water” is a solid album highlight, vocally hitting a soulful reggae sound brilliantly on the verses and building to a killer chorus (one of many).

The singer’s voice is undeniably brilliant: big, luscious and soulful, it’s more than up to the challenge of Travelling’s varied sound, a sound which borrows intelligently from soul, reggae, indie and punk among others. Unmistakable is the joy she takes from her art and it’s infectious, “Crying Blood” for example, will have you jerking about excitably without even realising it. “I love you” on the other hand, is a beautiful thinly-arranged soul number; Brown’s croon is as inviting and soothing as her up-tempo stuff is energizing and kinetic.

From start to finish, Travelling like the Light is an addictively good pop record, bursting with hooks much bigger acts would kill for. It leaves the listener in little doubt as the future of the artist; “next big thing” is seldom a more fitting title.