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Victoria Victoria’s Tori Elliott takes us track-by-track via her soothing and stirring third album ‘Sweetest Ache,’ a collaboration with Charlie Hunter that channels internal angst and existential crises into soulful, catchy, cathartic, and charming indie pop magic.
Stream: “Sweetest Ache” – Victoria Victoria
I discover myself at house, understanding you’re the one which I would like and I can’t let or not it’s, the sweetest ache you’ll ever see…
Victoria Victoria’s third album opens within the depths of an existential disaster.
“My darkish night time of the soul has turn out to be my solely good friend,” Tori Elliott declares from the trenches – deep within the thick of it, channeling her fracture and fraught right into a spellbinding, emotionally charged reverie. Guitars pulse passionately and drums churn an pressing beat round her radiant voice as she sings sizzling on the mic, wrestling with life’s greatest, most intimate questions. She in the end resolves, “What else to say besides I’m right here; I’m nonetheless right here.”
Solutions are secondary and scant, however her energy comes from the asking – from expressing that which so many people are afraid to talk aloud. From examinations on religion and friendship to relentless ruminations on human connection and our “function” and “place” on this planet, all the things goes underneath the microscope and nothing is secure.
And that’s the great thing about Sweetest Ache: A cinematic report of heat and surprise, Victoria Victoria’s third album (in collaboration with Charlie Hunter) hits arduous and leaves an enduring mark because the North Carolina-based indie pop artist brings her innermost reckonings to life via soulful, catchy, cathartic, and charming pop songs.
It’s that tender type of turbulence that stirs the center whereas it soothes the soul. True to its identify in each means, this LP actually does damage in the perfect of the way.
My darkish night time of the soul
Sings me gently now to sleep
It doesn’t even let me pray
The lord my soul to maintain
However I’ll get up within the morning
Able to placed on one other present
And I’ll put to relaxation my questions
Like once we die the place do we actually go
I don’t know however I’m nonetheless right here
And I’m scared to loss of life to inform you
That I already know
And we’ve tried to maintain this secure
Tucked inside a dome of false realities
Of performs and make perception
Every part’s okay and I don’t know
What else to say besides I’m right here
I’m nonetheless right here
Launched Could 17, 2024, Sweetest Ache is an achingly intimate and enchanting triumph for Victoria Victoria and her longtime collaborator, Grammy-nominated guitarist and producer Charlie Hunter. A daring, stunning, and at instances breathtaking assortment of candid snapshots delving deep into the artist’s core, Tori Elliott’s third album as Victoria Victoria sends shivers down the backbone via its deft mixture of wealthy melodies, thought-provoking lyrics, and intimate, but expansive soundscapes. You’d by no means guess these songs had been produced in her house studio, not that all the report is comprised of some individuals taking part in a number of (a number of) devices.
No stranger to those pages – Atwood Journal premiered her 2019 EP When to Speak, When to Pray, and named its monitor “Sanctuary” as one in all our high songs of that 12 months – Victoria Victoria has at all times had a means of enchanting our ears while inspiring our hearts. Her 2022 album To the Wayside represented her first collaboration with Charlie Hunter, a seasoned veteran of the business himself – having first come to prominence within the early Nineteen Nineties. Collectively, the pair have continued to search out their shared voice as a dynamic duo of types, releasing a plethora of singles and the six-track Victoria Victoria and Charlie Hunter – The Reside Periods EP final August.
For Elliott, Sweetest Ache represents a return of types to the hooky pop music she first debuted with again within the mid-2010s.
“I had been within the concept of creating a pop report – and I wouldn’t even essentially put this fully within the realm of pop, genre-wise – however my final couple of initiatives leaned extra into soul music and dipped into the jazz world just a bit bit,” she tells Atwood Journal. “I needed to return to pop, and I feel that this was the right bridge between the final couple of years’ of stuff that I had been placing out, after which my enterprise into extra poppy initiatives. What I needed was one thing that leaned extra within the pop realm. I had been binging Harry Nilsson data and The Beatles, and I feel that actually comes via on this report, too – perhaps greater than I anticipated it to, even – however I’m actually pleased with it. So I had a really unfastened imaginative and prescient, and we landed inside that realm!”
“The report itself is attention-grabbing as a result of it actually attracts from all [my influences],” she provides. “There’s a nod to my Emmylou Harris part on this venture, you hear the Beatles inspiration, after which additionally I used to be obsessive about Hoobastank once I was a child, and also you hear that in ‘Peanut M&M’s’… It’s actually delving into all of those totally different eras and genres too, which I admire.”
The album, she says, got here collectively fairly naturally, as she and Hunter constructed every of her songs from the bottom up.
“Many of the songs on this report I wrote inside the final 12 months, however a few them had been concepts that I had from six, seven years in the past that had been simply voice memos in my telephone,” Tori Elliott tells Atwood Journal. “I launched this report with Charlie Hunter, who’s a guitarist and producer and has performed with all people, however we stay shut to one another and work collectively quite a bit. I had simply performed him a few voice memos of songs asking for assist with chord progressions, and he was like, ‘Let’s simply do one other report,’ as a result of we did my final report collectively. It was type of a whirlwind – in just some months, Charlie came to visit and he and my husband and I (my husband is a sound engineer and a mixing engineer), the three of us actually did all the report collectively in my house studio, which is wild while you take heed to it ’trigger it feels like one million individuals are on it, however it’s principally Charlie taking part in all the things. It’s wild that it’s out now as a result of all of it occurred so quick.”
Between its susceptible lyricism and hovering, beautiful performances, Sweetest Ache actually sees Victoria Victoria shining brighter than ever.
“Within the final couple of years I’ve actually come into my very own confidence-wise,” she says. “I feel that my songwriting’s gotten quite a bit stronger, which is at all times one thing that I used to be essentially the most pleased with. This report showcases what I’ve at all times needed to be, the primary level of why I create and what I create and what I launch, in a extra refined means. I had extra of a hand on this report, production-wise, than I’ve every other venture. I co-produced it with Charlie, and I feel that the arrogance I felt making the report comes via in a means. Possibly the typical listener wouldn’t essentially decide up on that in the event that they don’t know me, however I can hear the distinction in my vocal efficiency, in my songwriting and the instrumentation and the alternatives that we made within the songs. There’s a confidence that comes with doing it over and again and again.”
To that finish, Elliott cites a number of private highlights and memorable moments which have lasted together with her.
“My favourite is ‘Empty,’ and it’s my favourite on the album as an entire as a result of I’ve all of my associates singing the verses in unison with me, and the verses themselves are very… That’s one that will fall within the ‘unserious’ class, very whimsical, very wordy,” she smiles. “I bear in mind all of my associates asking, ‘How are we presupposed to study what you want us to sing this together with you?’ And in order that was actually enjoyable.”
“My different favourite tune is ‘Therapist’s Armchair,’ which is a ballad that we recorded in my lounge in a single take, via simply me and the keys. That tune is heartbreak central, but in addition it meant quite a bit to me for me to launch one thing that I wrote, that I performed; there’s nothing to cover behind there. It’s simply me in my lounge, and that felt like a giant step for me.”
Additional highlights embrace the album’s love-soaked, poetic, and uncovered title monitor (“It’s the sweetest ache, contact til my bones quake, wreckage can’t look away, like a sore that I can’t not to mention, the sweetest ache I’ve ever recognized,” she seductively sings), the jazzy, dreamily swinging “Classes on Loss,” and the intimate alt-folk tune “Jacob’s Ladder,” wherein Elliott unpacks existential angst one metaphorical rung at a time.
“I wrote ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ about non secular deconstruction and uncertainty,” Elliott says. “It poses the query, what occurs when all we all know to be good begins to harm us? How will we transfer past that, and might we ever discover the great in it as soon as once more?”
“‘Jacob’s Ladder’ is all in regards to the journey, infusing previous western instrumentation and trendy people. The vocal association coupled with Charlie Hunter’s acoustic and baritone guitars created a textual universe that I really feel actually pleased with.”
I dreamt like Jacob
I used to be wrestling with God
Ultimately I received
I had a imaginative and prescient of myself
In robes of gold
Doing all the things in my energy to remain
Oh it was good to dream once more
Oh it was good to see your face once more
Oh it was good to consider you out loud
In relation to deeper cuts, she hopes listeners pay particular consideration to the album’s fifth monitor, the spiritually questioning “The place Will We Be.”
Lord once we die the place will we go
Lord once we die the place will we go
I’ve heard tales of greener pastures
And golden paved brick roads
Lord once we die the place will we go
After we not cry
The place will we be
After we not cry
The place will we be
Will I stand subsequent to my mom
For all eternity
After we not cry
The place will we be
I like to like and I hate to hate
However typically I do each
The heat of daylight on my face
Leaves me wanting extra
– “The place Will We Be,” Victoria Victoria
“That’s a tune that I really feel actually pleased with. It’s extra within the people realm, genre-wise. I wrote it on this headspace of a good friend, my bandmate and one in all my greatest associates, her grandmother had simply handed away. And so she was strolling via that grief. And I had a good friend who had handed away, and I used to be attending all of those totally different end-of-life ceremonies as a result of we’re each from totally different religions. Seeing the ways in which all of us cope with loss of life and questions of, is that this it? Is there one thing else? We’re not fairly positive.”
“I grew up with a really non secular Christian background, I grew up singing hymns, and I needed to put in writing a hymn of uncertainty and of query. And in order that’s that tune. We took all of the vocals in a single take, the three of us singing collectively, me and my two different bandmates. That tune’s actually particular; as we’ve been touring, that’s been one which we’ve pulled from the brand new album and been performing, and each single time, it does one thing – for everybody collectively collectively, everybody taking part in it, everybody listening. And in order that’s the one which I hope that individuals are drawn to on the report.”
Finally, Elliott hopes Sweetest Ache is usually a acquainted good friend for listeners and a comforting companion to all those that want it; that it may well assist them really feel seen and heard in a lot the way in which that she did via writing these songs; and that her existential explorations is usually a balm for these stored awake by the exact same ideas and unresolved feelings.
“This report has quite a lot of complexity to it. There are quite a lot of open-ended questions which can be requested – and I feel that for me, for my persona kind and my upbringing and background, asking questions and never having solutions by no means felt like a suitable factor,” Elliott shares. “As I’ve been performing these songs stay, the factor that I feel people who find themselves perhaps in that very same headspace have taken away from it’s that, ‘Oh, nobody truly is aware of something.’ And we’re all simply not understanding something collectively, and there’s a consolation to that.”
“I feel that’s what I hope that folks take away from it, simply that life is so stuffed with ambiguity and complexity and nuance and doubt and concern, and that we’re all in that house collectively. That’s terrifying, but in addition type of the great thing about the human expertise. I used to be writing quite a lot of these songs within the midst of an existential disaster, like ‘what am I doing with my life,’ but in addition my religion upbringing, questions on all of that, questions on friendships, simply all the things. It was that technique of analyzing all the things with a microscope, virtually to the purpose the place it’s not useful, however within the midst of that angst. You may have some songs that stay proper in that house, after which different songs that stay within the house of the questions themselves – the place the solutions don’t even actually matter, it’s simply the expertise of asking them. I feel you’ll be able to hear my development all through that, and it feels actually particular.”
Expertise the complete report by way of our under stream, and peek inside Victoria Victoria’s Sweetest Ache with Atwood Journal as Tori Elliott goes track-by-track via the music and lyrics of her third studio album!
Sweetest Ache is out now.
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:: stream/buy Sweetest Ache right here ::
:: join with Victoria Victoria right here ::
Stream: ‘Sweetest Ache’ – Victoria Victoria
:: Inside Sweetest Ache ::
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Peanut M&M’s
Paying homage to the pop/alt punk anthems of the late ’90s and early 2000s, Peanut M&M’s sings of resilience within the midst of existentialism. The lyrics communicate to the “darkish night time of the soul” and the confusion that comes with the deconstruction of societal, non secular, and private beliefs. The triumphant and resistant message of the tune involves a head on the closing of the refrain with a powerful “I’m nonetheless right here.”
Charlie Hunter embodies the early ’80s pop-rock of his youth with driving bass and drums and distorted electrical guitars, offering a basis for Victoria Victoria’s angsty, highly effective vocal efficiency. “Peanut M&M’s” is each traditional, and present, following the footsteps of Olivia Rodrigo’s revival of pop-punk anthems.
Classes on Loss
“Classes on Loss” tells of the cyclical nature of life; “Gripping onto what I’ve, however all the things that I’ve obtained will flip right into a lesson on loss,” sings Victoria Victoria. The lyrics of the tune and its message– that in the end, all issues discover their ending– contrasts the ’60s pop influences of the instrumentation and playful melodies. Charlie Hunter performs guitars, bass, drums and even vibraphones, accompanied by Victoria’s piano and vocals. This tune feels each timeless and insightful, reminding us grief is assured to all.
Sweetest Ache
Impressed by the smooth rock preparations of Harry Nilson, Sweetest Ache makes use of buoyant melodies to convey the acquainted ache of limerence. The tune speaks to the fantasies we create over strangers, exploring the parallel universe we stay in when eager for somebody we barely know. Victoria Victoria lyrically captures the self indulgence– and euphoria– of falling in love with the mirage of who one may be. Her sensual vocal efficiency and winding harmonies float over a mattress of hammond organ and Charlie Hunter’s old-school guitar tones, making a world as vivid because the fantasies we stay in.
When You Lose
Using classic electrical guitars and hammond organ, When You Lose attracts affect from The Beatles and Harry Nilson, opening up on the finish with a triumphant gospel really feel. The tune speaks of what’s liked and misplaced; a bitter finish to a relationship with promise. Victoria sings of the mirror that’s the current day, and the way it illuminates the cracks that went unnoticed– the warning indicators of an final ending. When You Lose is the right moody– but cheeky– breakup tune.
The place Will We Be
Gathered in a Twenties attic, Victoria Victoria, Charlie Hunter, Noah Elliott, Ethan Gingerich and Maia Kamil recorded The place Will We Be in a single take. The hymn-like high quality of the tune speaks to uncertainty after loss of life, and asks the query, if all we’ve is love on the finish, is that sufficient? The place Will We Be echoes the fashion of Natalie Bergman’s gospel/people album, Mercy whereas drawing on the influences of Emmylou Harris’ Wrecking Ball and previous time gospel hymns of Victoria’s youth.
Lose Me As an alternative
The sister monitor to Tear in my Eye, Lose Me As an alternative attracts on the ’70s soul of Gamble and Huff. The tune laments a relationship gone awry; the lyrics sing of shedding oneself within the pursuit of loving one other. “Shared custody of the blame and the guilt over this sparkly facade that we’ve constructed.” What occurs when two individuals construct what they suppose a relationship must be as an alternative of working with what they’ve obtained? The very factor they tried to ascertain is misplaced.
Tear in My Eye
Tear in my Eye speaks to leaving as a result of you need to, and never since you need to. That includes singer-songwriter, Maia Kamil, and Victoria’s youthful sister Halle Elliott, the bedrock of the tune are familial harmonies. Tear in my Eye soars, drawing inspiration from the groove of Gamble and Huff and the vocal preparations of Aretha. The tune laments the necessity to go away what’s acquainted, however understanding that development is what waits on the opposite facet.
Jacob’s Ladder
Jacob’s Ladder was written about non secular deconstruction and uncertainty. It poses the query, what occurs when all we all know to be good begins to harm us? How will we transfer past that, and might we ever discover the great in it as soon as once more? Jacob’s Ladder is all in regards to the journey, infusing previous western instrumentation and trendy people. Victoria’s beautiful vocal association coupled with Charlie Hunter’s acoustic and baritone guitars create a textural universe that envelopes the listener.
Therapist’s Armchair
Recorded in a single take at her lounge piano, Victoria Victoria conveys the heartache of choosing up the items; two individuals, straggling alongside, attempting their greatest to make it, and never fairly sure they are going to. Therapist’s Armchair is ready in a remedy session, and presents one glimmer of hope, “..we hope no one’s leaving on the finish of the day.” The felted piano and emotional vocal efficiency places the listener proper within the room with Victoria, feeling each notice right down to the core.
Empty
Empty is a boldly triumphant monitor, closely impressed by the whimsy of Harry Nilson and the comradery of The Beatles. The tune sings of leaving, and taunts the one being left; “You’re so empty, there with out me, with out my time to steal.” Using a hammond organ, upright piano, vibraphone and a Twenties marching band bass drum discovered on the facet of the highway, this tune is wild and celebratory, becoming a member of the ranks of Fizz’s 60s rock revival. Victoria and associates carry out the vocals, leaving the listener feeling as in the event that they had been invited to the occasion of the 12 months.
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© Trent Brown
an album by Victoria Victoria
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