When we first wrote about Chicago songwriter and multi-instrumentalist V.V. Lightbody back in 2019 with single ‘Babe, Honestly‘, we explained her self-described ‘nap rock’ aesthetic: “a collision of folk, dream pop and indie rock that’s filtered through a sunny Latin and Mediterranean prism.” The style was built upon with 2020’s Make a Shrine or Burn It and B-side ‘Really Do Care‘, lush songs charged with intimate detail and inventive tones, moving through personal themes of fear and longing with their own idiosyncratic grace. The original description still held, but there was the sense that the V.V. Lightbody sound was evolving into something beyond the nap rock label.
After something of a whirlwind 2022 which included touring with Cassandra Jenkins at Newport Folk Festival and joining Harry Styles’s band for BBC’s Big Weekend, V.V. Lightbody has returned with brand new single ‘Itinerary’ which pushes her sound further than ever. A style which leans further into the ethereal tones of previous releases yet grounds them with an almost sludgy dimension, a perfect counterbalance of shimmer and heft which speaks to the contradictions at the track’s heart. “I think it’s kinda scary baby / you always have a plan,” she sings, evoking an uneasy equilibrium between chaos and control. “Maybe a little early baby / for me to understand.”
The single word refrain echoes across the back half, stuttered as though for stress or in hesitation. But either way, there is the sense of giving in to the soaring instrumentation in its strangely physical fuzz. The V.V. Lightbody sound might not quite be nap rock any longer, but it’s up to interpretation whether it has woken from its slumber or pushed through into some dream-filled otherside.
Itinerary is out now and available from Bandcamp. V.V. Lightbody is currently on tour supporting Fruit Bats, and you can find the dates below:
4/12 – Indianapolis @ Hi-Fi
4/13 – Chicago @ Thalia Hall4/14 – Minneapolis @ First Avenue
4/15- Maquoketa @ Codfish Hollow
4/16 – Madison @ Majestic Theater
4/17 – Windsor, ON @ Meteor
4/18 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Theatre
4/19 – Hamilton, ON @ Mill’s Hardware
4/20 – Ypsilanti, MI @ Ziggy’s
4/21 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Up & Under
4/22 – Goshen, IN @ Ignition Music Garage
Photo by Ash Dye