Cassette Review // Victoria Blade "Lo-fi Love Songs" (Already Dead Tapes)

$6 //
Edition of 125 //
https://alreadydeadtapes.bandcamp.com/album/ad311-victoria-blade-lo-fi-love-songs //

With the ukelele and vocals, Victoria Blade has a certain sound that is easy enough on the ears so it should appeal to most people.   It reminds me a little bit of Zooey Deschanel, like She & Him but without the Him.   With a xylophone, these songs can become soft, soothing and overall just fun.    The first two songs both feel like they're about traveling and I enjoy that because I partly feel like this would be good to listen to on the road and partly because I imagine videos for these songs featuring a tourist taking Polaroids.

"Pressing onward / We're moving forward" is a great line and it should be the mantra of everyone.   There is so much depth in what feel like simplistic songs.   We go back to the ukelele now before the end of Side A and this has a familiar feel to it, something which might even remind you of someone else, but the fact that it's here and I can't quite place any other names is reason enough for you to be listening to it.

On the flip side things open up with a song called "Wherever I'm Goin'" which definitely lives up to the cassette title, as it is indeed a love song.   "I keep choosing what is true / I keep choosing you" is how the next song starts and I just feel like this kicked up the idea of these being love songs quite a bit from the first side.    I feel like the title should warn you in this sense, but if not, just know that if you're just gone through a bad breakup you might not want to listen to this one right now.

All too often these days I feel like more songs are made about heartbreak and loss than anything else.   I mean, I spent most of my youth listening to songs about such subjects.  You think it will end after your teens, but nope, even in my 20s.    Still, it's nice to hear songs which are happy.   In the world which we live currently, we perhaps need these songs of Victoria Blade more than ever before.