December 13, 2021

Victory Hall: The Someday Herald

French psychedelic lo-fi shoegazers Victory Hall made one album in 2009: The Dull Commando's Merchandise. It made the band's main songwriter and singer Julien Pras a minor celebrity at the time, but it took the band 12 years to come up with a follow-up, The Someday Herald, a record with 18 short songs - quite a lot of them last just over one minute. It is a collecton of snapshots from everyday life, with domestic hassles and breaking news as equal partners.

Imagine the Beach Boys and XTC joining forces for a lo-fi experiment with top shelf melodies, using only barebones studio trickery for a trip through late '60s psychedelica and '90s shoegaze. They hop on for a wild ride by Switching Cars & Changin' Flights and embrace doubts with Face Value. They invited three guest vocalists to broaden their scope and Helen Ferguson (Queen of the Meadow) steals the show with Golden Times, a song that co-wrote with Pras.

Victory Hall:
Julien Pras: guitar
Hugo Berrouet: bass
Martial Jesus Solis: drums
David Lespès: guitar
Helen Ferguson: vocals on Fairytale Sky & Golden Times
Emily Jane White: vocals on Confusion
Ben Pleng: vocals on Wait For The Crew

The Someday Herald is released via Tiny Room Records (vinyl, cassette). Digital is pay-what-you-want.

Tracks:
  1. Fairytale Sky
  2. Miss Chief
  3. Face Value
  4. Engaged
  5. Golden Times
  6. Oh Cult Leader
  7. The Burning Slate
  8. Start Anew
  9. Switching Cars & Changin' Flights
  10. Fairies Turn
  11. Flaming Barry
  12. Confusion
  13. Right A Wrong
  14. Predatory Birds
  15. Only One
  16. Windshield
  17. Wait For The Crew
  18. Sad Eyes

» Victory Hall on Facebook

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