I saw a TV programme today about the average length of a pop song starting to rise again, having fallen to not much more than two minutes or so courtesy of the US teeny boppers.
Sometimes a song can be just too long though; especially when there is eight and a half minutes of it.
But that isn’t the case with this wonderful piece by The Victim which has the stamp of Anohni and the Johnsons on it in the early part and which could have gone on for another half hour in my book.
‘Heartaches & Lows’ is the title track from The Victim’s debut album and was released in June but we only just got to hear of it.
The Victim has gone all DIY since the last time we reviewed him, writing, recording and releasing the album himself.
That last review was the single ‘Walls’, which also turns up on this album and of which he said it “felt very liberating” and that “The Victim was probably just in a better place in life than what has previously been the case.”
And you can tell that from this track, which carries a positive vibe from the off even though it begins life as a melancholic, almost mournful slow ballad, delivered by the saddest synthesiser you ever heard and a bass line that is counting out time to the dawn and the coming execution.
And it is still positive mainly because of The Victim’s vocal, which brings a message of hope within it like a dove of peace arising out of the flames of the Middle East. (I might be getting a little carried away myself there, steady on Dave!)
Then, on three minutes, it breaks out into what is an instrumental precursor to an almighty guitar/synth anthem which kicks in from 4:30 for the last four minutes.
An elegant but powerful extended guitar solo to play it out with just the faintest hint of ‘Layla’ to add an edge to it, then it ends with what sounds like the cacophony of celebratory ringing bells in a cathedral..
The sort of thing that would not only fill the Royal Albert Hall, but also seep out through the streets and down into the subway where entire carriages would be rocking through the night.
It’s not The Victim that I’ve been used to hitherto, but I’ll buy into the victimhood any day.
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