“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.” So we wrote of ‘Itinerary’ by Vivian McConnell’s V.V. Lightbody back in 2023, a single which suggested something of a turning point for the Chicago-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, moving beyond the self-described nap rock of 2020 full-length Make a Shrine or Burn without quite indicating the direction such a path might lead. “The V.V. Lightbody sound might not quite be nap rock any longer,” we concluded, “but it’s up to interpretation whether it has woken from its slumber or pushed through into some dream-filled otherside.”
With a new full-length in the works, V.V. Lightbody has returned with single ‘Best Problem’ to continue this process of evolution away from the project’s beginnings. With McConnell joined by Sam Cantor (bass), Emma Hospelhorn (harmonies, keys), Jack Henry Lickerman (drums) and Macie Stewart (strings, harmonies), the track is vivid, assured and sleek, its upbeat tones and forthright lyricism far too alert and attentive to fall into any definition of nap rock. Which isn’t to say there’s no seam of dreaminess, from the manner in which McConnell’s tender vocals skate over the sound in the opening half to the psych-tinged peak towards the close, rather there’s now far more going on. Likewise within the lyrics themselves, where the narrator describes a magnetic and ubiquitously popular counterpart who nevertheless seems determined to keep their own company. The subtle tone ranges from shrewd observation and unabashed honesty to something more like naked desperation, as though to encounter such a person is amusing, enlivening and maddening in equal measure.
Is it not the best problem to have?
everyone wants to be with you
360 around the room
everyone wants to be with you
Watch the video below, filmed by Tim Nagle and edited by V.V. Lightbody, with creative direction & wardrobe by Shannon Marks:
‘Best Problem’ is out now and available from the V.V. Lightbody Bandcamp page.
Photo by Tim Nagle