ALBUM REVIEW: Virginia Wing – Private Life

Fire Records

Released: 12.02.21

Synth pop group Virginia Wing have been forced inwards by COVID realities, digging deep to produce a lockdown masterwork. Songs of impulse, addiction, desperation and shame are exposed in therapy. Lyric rich. Alice Merida Richards’ vocals are to the fore, centre stage and often also in the wings as retorts or musical samples. Soft spoken or sweetly delivered, her voice is set against the alternative 80s clear, clean and bright melodic synth pop. The resultant sound has far more angles than from four square walls and is as complex as life itself.

Opener Holding Out is catchy, accessible, chartable even, and provides a way in to a richly rewarding album that gets more illuminating with every play. After the outpouring there is hope: private Life, public triumph.