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Virgin Suicide

Virgin Suicide

Written by: HES on 25/06/2015 09:51:13

When Sune Wagner produces a Vice-promoted album it is just as sure as the sky is blue and the rain is wet that every goddamn Copenhipster will lose their goddamn minds. It will also be sure as the grass is green and the trees have leaves that my critical glasses will be planted solidly on my own hype-hating nose bridge. That being said, Wagner has previously shown that he has talents when it comes to creating fully developed musical universes as he did with both Psyched Up Janis and Raveonettes. But if you expect trashcan-shoegaze or garage-indie from Virgin Suicide you will be disappointed already at the first spin. Not because Virgin Suicide is a bad album, but because Virgin Suicide is the candy-floss-iest noise pop album you'll hear this year.

So the question is: Is that a bad thing? And the answer is: That surely depends on whether you like sugar-sweet 80's dream pop as sticky as the cover of the album also suggests. Personally I am quite excited to travel back in time, but it is an acquired taste. Songs like "My Girl" and "I Surrender" is a buffet of androgynous, echoed vocals and steady rhythm guitar, spiced with the occasional classic The Cure-esque light guitar tangle. It's so mesmerizingly cute it almost makes your ear buds stick to your hearing canals like gum. However, I am missing a little edge here – a little sour to the sweetness to stay in the analogy. The 80's have been back for a while now and benchmarking Virgin Suicide with for example American Bleachers' most amazing 2014 release "Strange Desire" or even the slightly more shoegazing Danish band The Brazierlights in The Window both show that the 80's can actually be updated without losing the iconic sound. Compared to this the candy sweet Virgin Suicide seems, excuse the pun, toothless. With that being said, the self-titled release is still an enjoyable, uplifting, rather short collecting of well-written borderline-pop songs with vast appeal. As a rock critic, I just have to warrant a bit more contrast before I can jump aboard the MS Hypeship.

Download: My Girl, I Surrender, Virgin Suicide
For The Fans Of: The Brazierlights In The Window, Tears For Fears, Duran Duran
Listen: facebook.com/virginsuicide

Release date 18.05.2015
NMS