The title’s as minimalistic as possible, but there’s some traditional pop melodies buried within.
Unfortunately, it’s a true testament to will power, to manage the whole thing.
The dark, twisted position of the art work focuses the attention of the album on a dark, lonely reality, even with the backwards peace symbolisation. Once the album surpasses All White Everything, the sense of a dark, twisted pop album, becomes a distant memory, when the only sense of a dark reality on the entire album, comes from the barren piano tones and the orchestral string and brass arrangements, to create the only true atmospheric track on the entire LP.
Following track, When I Need You structures itself almost backwards, having no rhythm, or riding groove to carry the track with some form of energy, only until the end of the track after the three minute mark. If the track had attempted a six minute challenge, the track as a whole piece would be much more enjoyable.
After these two tracks, the remaining second half of the LP, follows the same format, of a singular piano, with layered, multi tonal vocals, before the occasional rise, which doesn’t manage to go anywhere.
Unfortunately, everything is going against JJ on V. The vocals are at times, absolutely stunning. The softness in her voice and the bitter pain, seeping through each word, loads the album with torn up emotions. However, the dark album artwork, and the essence of lead single All White Everything, guiding the first glances of V to have foreseen a darker themed pop album is too confusing to ignore. Had the lead single have been When I Need You and the artwork’s background had changed, and the positioning of the body was slightly different, V could have been given the correct representation of what this LP is. An emotional, heart torn pop album similar to Lykke Li’s brilliance.
3.5
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