Album Review: V V Brown – Samson & Delilah
4 min read
Having taken a few years out from a career that crowned her as one of the brightest pop talents of the late noughties, singer-songwriter V V Brown appears to have gone through quite a musical transformation of late and in the lead up to her comeback. The singer, who is known for her international hit single Shark in the Water has steadied her return to music in order to perfect her latest record, Samson & Delilah, which proves to be a much more thorough and nurtured release than anything heard from V V in the past as opposed to taking the easy route of releasing a similar follow up to the hit-makers Traveling Like The Light debut.
Several V V singles got our attention back in the late noughties but none of them quite so much as her international breakthrough hit, Shark In the Water. Telling of a woman scorned and witnessing first hand her lovers cheating ways, it was a chart placing single around the globe and from that single V V become a globally recognized hit-maker. Following singles weren’t quite able to replicate the success of Shark In The Water and soon enough V V seemed to fall back into obscurity.
The musicians latest gift to us is a musically vibrant, beautifully produced and gorgeously arranged masterpiece of goth-pop that comes equipped with 11 brand new pennings, all suiting the stars recent reincarnation. V V has been planning her comeback for a while now and has taken time to craft her brand new record, which is now ripe and ready for the picking and it proves to be one hell of a collection.
We are invited into V V’s new style by the stunning Substitute For Love. The track takes its time, slowly edging us into a sound quite surprising but equally fitting for V V, presenting to us a cinematic and swaying ballad that is brimming with instrumental effects; contrasting to any of Brown’s previous releases and a sound that flows cohesively throughout the whole track-listing.
The following Nothing Really Matters (we think she was influenced by Madonna’s Ray of Light track-listing at this point), begins with a retro beat that sits prominently within the duration of the track. The chorus is catchy as the singer harmonizes with a male vocal while the records lead single, Samson, boasts a proud, radio friendly form early on in the record and is easily one of the musician’s best tracks to date.
I Can Give You More is pure adrenaline as it lifts the record from its semi-mellow roots and throws it into dance territory, injecting the record with an uplifting and uptempo highlight that the singer can be proud of. The Apple, the records most recent single cut, is another of the albums more energized inclusions, mixing a bouncing rhythm with V V’s power-diva vocal delivery and a Chemical Brothers-esque spine that creates a truly captivating album centerpiece for Samson & Delilah.
Faith offers a slice of pop with its encouraging and optimistic theme and the singer declaring that “you gotta have faith” around an infectious new-wave fueled melody and a guest male vocalist that adds a sweet romanticism to the track. It would be surprising if this one wasn’t chosen as a future single.
Ghosts is another standout on Samson & Delilah which carries a mainstream melody rich in hooks and a tight production and some eighties vocal effects that pop up occasionally around the tracks African flavored rhythm.
Theatrics have been pushed to the front seat on Samson & Delilah with V V taking on a dramatic and even slightly operatic vocal approach to the songs contained here. The numbers are just as catchy and memorable as her earlier pop influenced work but she is working a much different angel these days and a sound that is perhaps more appreciated by music aficionados than mere music listeners. A matured and experimental spine sites within the singer-songwriters new studio effort that showcases a revitalized and much more artistic V V Brown than we have heard before.
The record delivers many surprises the more times you listen to it. New sounds pop up all over the place and previously unnoticed effects create a fresh feel each time your press play. It isn’t unfair to say that it is records like these that give me faith in music these days. Let’s be honest here, excluding a few artists who have been brave enough to push the musical boundaries, there hasn’t been much to smile about in an era full of reality show exploits speeding up the rapid decline of the music industry over the last decade. It is releases like Samson & Delilah that reassures us that music still has a pulse and deserves a second chance. Samson & Delilah serves as a blueprint of musical brilliance and is easily the best release of 2013 and one of the best offered to us over the past decade, without a doubt!
Buy ‘V V Brown – Samson & Delilah’ from Amazon
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::: RenownedForSound.com’s Editor and Founder –
Interviewing and reviewing the best in new music and globally recognized artists is his passion.
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