Victory At Sea

I’ll admit that the first thing about Boston’s Victory At Sea that made me stop and take stock was an old review online that compared vocalist Mona Elliott to Kristin Hersh. Generally I’m not a predictable person, and frequently comments of “oh, this person sounds a bit like that person so you’ll probably like it,” completely fail on me. Fortunately things swung the opposite way this time and the first song I heard held my fascination.

I do actually hear the original comparison made with Hersh, but only vaguely - probably only down to a rasp in the voice. Not so much lyrically and musically, as while Throwing Muses were a tight, rhythmic ship, Victory At Sea has a much looser, almost drunken swagger/desperation running through their songs. But I can appreciate that.

Their recent-ish album Memories Fade opens with ‘Love Is Ageless’ a swirling, dark number – also the key recommended track here. Drowning amongst a rolling piano line and a distressed violin, the chaos eases every so often for gentle verses, before all sounds are once again whipped up into whirlpools of howling. I like it so much that it’s difficult to move onto any the other songs on the album.

Further MP3s available here and here.

Steven McCarron - 13-01-2005

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