The major downside to being a music lover in the digital age is that it sometimes feels like there aren’t enough listening hours in the day. You can try to cut out mundane trivialities, like work and sleep, but there will still be bands who don’t get the attention they might deserve.
Case in point: Viva Voce. For a few years now, they’ve surfaced sporadically on my radar, only to eventually sink gradually back underwater until their next record arrives. And every time I listen to any of their albums, I’m surprised that this band still haven’t quite forced their way into my own personal A-list.
Maybe they were more astute than they realised when picking their name (which translates from Italian as ‘word of mouth’). The classic example of a slow-burning success, Kevin and Anita Robinson have steadily built on their fan base with each release.
Bringing in two extra band members for Rose City might have raised expectations that they were going to ramp things right up, and indulge their prog (note the small p) tendencies to decadent extremes. Perversely enough though, they’ve gone in the opposite direction, delivering a record that is more poppy and less trippy than we have ever heard them.
The dual assault of Kevin’s drumming and Anita’s brilliant effects-laden guitar kick the album off in urgent fashion with the exuberant one-two of ‘Devotion’ and ‘Die a Little’. The record then settles into something of a more leisurely pace, reaching it‘s zenith on the dreamy, piano-led song ‘Midnight Sun‘.
As well as their instrumental interplay, Kevin and Anita’s vocal harmonies are as important to Viva Voce’s sound as ever. They are used to great effect a number of times, and are exemplified on the pensive, woozy ‘Red Letter Day’, where they come across as a less whiskey-soaked Mark Lanegan attempting to woo a less ghostly Isobel Campbell.
From time to time, Rose City bursts back into life, as we see on the title track, with it’s pounding, insistent beat. It’s a paean for a lost time and place: ‘I wanna be back in Rose City / I wanna be in the town in love‘, and it’s one of the album’s best moments.
At times, the album is in danger of drifting off into inconsequentiality, but it is generally saved by the band’s inventiveness, usually in the shape of Anita’s sparkling guitar work. Occasionally things take a bit more of a turn for the unexpected, such as the wonderfully weird piano at the end of ‘Flora’ which very nearly sounds like some kind of deranged 1930s vaudeville.
Rose City is another fine piece of work by a band who clearly know how to play to their strengths. They have a distinctive sound, but have honed it to such an extent they are able to play around with numerous ideas and still maintain their innate charm. Viva Voce haven’t recorded their classic album just yet, but you get the feeling that with every release they’re getting closer.
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