VV, aka Ville Vallo, has gifted fans the second single from his forthcoming Neon Noir album. The former frontman for the Finnish band, HIM, says this of “Echolocate Your Love”:
It’s a sonic step-by-step guide on how to survive, and perhaps even enjoy, the realm of VV with its abundance of things that go bump in the night. It’s a teary mascara marathon between Robert Smith and Ozzy, with a dash of hope.
Compared to “Loveletting” which I found to be a catchy moody ballad-esque tune, “Echolocate Your Love” is an upbeat rocker in the vein of classic HIM songs like “In Venere Veritas” from Screamworks, “Wings of a Butterfly” from Dark Light and so many others.
As a word nerd, I love that Ville use echolocate in a song. It’s a word often only used in science and he’s used it beautifully within the song. One of the many things I enjoy about Ville’s lyricism is his use of words and how he paints precise pictures with them. They’re sometimes broad and all encompassing strokes painting a big picture view, but sometimes they’re delicate and frail painting a smaller detailed picture, and I find the lyrics to “Echolocate Your Love” of the latter spectrum. To use his own words, the lyrics “pinpoint the poison” and heal the wounds.
He even manages to include a Hectate reference. As a writer, I admire the creativity and poetry of this man so much and am so envious of how the words flow out of his mind and into his music and the world.
Words aside, Ville’s voice in “Echolocate Your Love” is able to showcase the emotion of the song he has written. I find that he has one of the best and most distinctive voices out there. He is up there with iconic crooners like Bing Crosby and Elvis. Add his baritone in, and he would have set the hearts aflame of any warm blooded human just like the legends did.
If I wasn’t already excited for Neon Noir‘s release, “Echolocate Your Love” would solidify it. It is one of the most anticipated albums on my list.
RATING OUT OF 5 ROCK HANDS: 5 ?????
Photo credit Joonas Brandt
