The Veronicas - "Gothic Summer"

Artist: THE VERONICAS

Label: Big Noise

Distributed by: Ingrooves 

Cat No: 

Year: 2024

Produced by: John Feldmann, Ryan Linvill

Personnel: Jessica Origliasso (Vocals), Lisa Huffman (Vocals), Kerser (Guest Vocals on Savage), Travis Barker (Drums), Sierra Deaton (co-songwriter).

Running Order: 

1) Perfect

2) Detox

3) Here To Dance

4) Savage (ft. Kerser)

5) Invisible

6) Ribcage

7) Jungle

8) Perfect (acoustic version)

Genre: Rock, Acoustic, Garage Rock, Hip-Hop, Pop, Punk

The Veronicas sixth studio album has been a mileston in their musical career so far.  It is the first album for them as a newly independent band, signing to Travis Barker's Big Noise label.  Now without the creative and commercial constraints of Sire Records and Sony Music, The Veronicas have had more of a chance to take their artistic faculties into full control and it shows on this album.  

A refreshing change for many Vfans is the use of more guitars on this album, harking back to their early days of the first album "The Secret Life Of", whilst still digging some pop sounds on tracks like Savage and Ribcage.

According to Jess in a recent interview with Rolling Stone: "The whole theme of Gothic Summer is that it’s basically exploring social commentary on what we think is reality versus how we create our reality. It’s a very metaphorical album."

Lisa's comment was: "Gothic Summer is about the highs and lows of life. Finding beauty, empowerment and self-love in the shadows and darker parts of life’s experiences."

Gothic Summer contains just 7 new tracks, most of which are under three minutes long.  There has been some debate in their Facebook fan group as to whether this can be classified as an album with such a short running time and amount of tracks.  However, the band Sparks did something similar in 1979 with their album "Number One In Heaven" which had only six tracks on it and was considered a groundbreaking album for them for ushering in the electro pop and New Romantic movement to come out of the UK in the early to mid 80's.

The album opens up with the song "Perfect", which is a statement about being your own master and not conforming to the world's paradigm of what is perfect, and succeeding in life on your own terms rather than other people's expectations.  A good solid rock track with a rousing chorus reminiscent of their early hits "4ever" and "Revolution", and the video is unforgettable with Jess singing whilst having a huge huntsman spider crawling all over her face.  

"Detox" is about ridding themselves of toxic people in their lives and seeking quality people for their future.  Lisa is now happily married to actor Logan Huffman, whilst Jess is engaged to an American jeweler called Alex Smith after a couple of toxic relationships with Ruby Rose and Kai Carlton between 2016 - 2020.  The intro is reminiscent of the chorus of The Sonics "He's Waiting", and then explodes into a fast and furious punk number where they exorcise the ghosts of their past lyrically and vocally before suddenly going into a cod-reggae outro for the last 60 seconds.

"Here To Dance" is inspired by 70's disco as well as the likes of Sly & The Family Stone and Donna Summer as well as 70's Brisbane girl pop act Chicks Incorporated.  Opening with a good funky bass riff, it's a light-hearted track about dancing wherever you are no matter how you might be feeling at the time.  This was the third single to be taken from the album and cost nothing to make, being filmed on an iPhone at Lisa's place on her front deck.  

"Savage" was written about a past relationship, containing Australian rapper Kerser whom Jess and Lisa have recently met.  It starts out as a piano ballad with electronic claps and drumbeats before going into a shuffling dance track similar to the rhythms of the 90's Australian acts Caligula and Lavish.

"Invisible" is about wanting to withdraw from the world after being disappointed by a lover.  Travis Barker plays drums on it, and it was co-written by Sierra.  Another good rocker with a catchy chorus.  This song speaks to me a lot after being abused by a couple of parasitic ex-housemates and not wanting to associate with people too much except for eating, drinking and doing laundry.  

"Ribcage" demonstrates Jess' love for musical theatre which they grew up on from an early age.  It was originally a love song, but has much darker overtones and talks about rebirth.  A beautiful ballad with pianos and sonic sound effects over a gentle backdrop.  The lyrics are very graphic in describing the downs of romance and the physical pain it causes to the other partner.

"Jungle" is inspired by The B-52s and The Cramps with a 60's garage surf rock sound, and the beat reminiscent of a track from their Godzilla album "In It To Win It" but with more authentic 60's sounds.  A great fun track to do milk cow and shimmy dancing to - I'd love to hear them experiment with more 60's sounds for future albums.  The message is that life is a jungle out there and is not always fair, and you need to be thick skinned and open minded to deal with the curveballs that sometimes get thrown at you.  

The album closes with an acoustic rendition of "Perfect".

Gothic Summer looks set to be The Veronicas first chart topping album in Australia (it has already topped the iTunes charts at times of writing) thanks to innovative and aggressive marketing techniques that they have offered via their music store on their website as well as an official album launch at the Crowbar in Sydney on March 23rd.

Rating: 5/5