Virginia Wing
Ecstatic Arrow

What differentiates a good pop music album from one that might be considered mainstream and uninspired? Probably one of the main criteria lies simply in considering the content of the music in general, especially regarding the conceptual aspects and the proposed themes. Aside from this, I think attention can also be paid to the sound quality (but is it that important? Consider the long tradition of power-pop, for example. It seems to me that the refinement of sounds is not so crucial; in fact, it can sometimes even be detrimental) and particularly then, when we talk about what can be defined as art-pop, that care for details and their variety and nuances.

Virginia Wing, composed of Alice Merida Richards along with Sam Pillay and Sebastian Truskolasky, is generally defined as a dream-pop or psychedelic pop group, but in my opinion, these definitions are both imprecise. Stably on the roster of Fire Records since the release of their first LP, the Manchester group with "Ecstatic Arrow" is, in my opinion, defined in a very precise manner, inserting itself into an art-pop context inspired by a certain post-punk expressionism contaminated by Stereolab aesthetics and references to the Japanese wave of the late seventies, of which the Yellow Magic Orchestra were in every respect the main exponents and those who still enjoy (if only due to the presence of the great Ryuichi Sakamoto) great popularity around the world.

An intelligent group that openly declares its intention to position itself in an intermediate place between Madonna, Talking Heads, and Holger Czukay, I believe the Virginia Wing hit the mark perfectly, accomplishing exactly what they set out to do. The album consists mainly of tracks built on synthetic bases. A pleasant electronic pop (call it synth-pop) that definitely harkens back to some eighties moments, like New Order ("Season Reversed," "The Female Genius"), but mainly has an orientation towards allegorical arrangements and "jap" references, full of colors like "The Second Shift," "Glorious Idea," "A Sister," surrounded by jazz nuances dictated by the sound of the sax, or minimalisms like "Relativity," "For Every Window...," "Eight Hours..."

Ultimately, it's (only) a pop music album, yet many ideas are brilliant and combined with Alice's interpretive abilities outline a type of joyful but not trivial sound, which, without any frills (or perhaps precisely because of this) and without aspiring to be the album of your life, possibly simply focusing on this precise present moment, works perfectly.