We first wrote about V.V. Lightbody, the project of New York-based musician Vivien McConnell, back in 2019 with the release of single ‘Babe, Honestly‘. Released between her debut and sophomore albums, the song’s duality hinted at her nuanced approach to songwriting, where “the delicate and hospitable sound mask[ed] a colder, more vicious tone in the themes.” Such a careful and sensitive style was the key facet of both debut Bathing Peach and the more overtly personal follow-up Make a Shrine or Burn It. Records which lulled the listener with a combination of folk, dream pop and soft jazz yet communicated things immediate and powerful. Creeping albums of genuine emotional weight.
This month saw V.V. Lightbody return with brand new single, ‘Really Do Care’. A B-side from the Make a Shrine, the song continues the record’s personal tone, approaching anxieties around commitment with a distinctively idiosyncratic style. “This song acted as a self-soothing mantra for when I knew I couldn’t be with someone while also wanting to keep them in my back pocket,” McConnell explains. “I realize that ‘saving someone for later’ can be selfish and a little absurd, but this thought process was a sincere way to help make breaking things off less painful.”
Because for all of its worry and doubt, the song unfurls with warm patience, cyclic swirls of guitar and flute accompanied by the evocative slide guitar of Nashville’s Juan Solorzano. The result is a contemplative atmosphere in which concerns lose their sharp edges, can be held and studied in the palm of a hand. A way of bridging the gap between the past and the present in order to move forwards in the healthiest, kindest way possible. As McConnell concludes: “Sometimes you care too much, and sometimes you have to convince yourself to care.”