Heavy and Morose

Neon Noir marks the first solo album for Ville Valo, now going by VV professionally. Valo was the frontman and lead vocalist for the Finnish gothic rock band HIM. Since HIM went on hiatus, Valo has been performing and collaborating with artists such the band Agents. In the past few years he has been making ways to come out with his own music under the moniker VV.

The album lends itself to some classic hardcore gothic tones. Loud powerful music and a sexy deep voice along with it. Valo’s melodic nature make many of the songs feel more gentle despite the heavy beat behind it. “Run Away from the Sun” has such a clear opening that quickly gets expanded on with a deeper instrumentalization. But it never lets the clear melodic throughline get muddled by any of the rest of the musical layers. The melancholy of the song contrasts with some of the brighter spots such as light synths and fun guitar lines that add brief spots of levity.

The music, of course, carries this sad macabre tone with it, but the way Valo uses lyricism and imagery to convey all of these emotions is impressive to say the least. Allusions and metaphors lend itself to VV’s illustrative voice. For instance, the title song and third track on the album, “Neon Noir” uses a barrage of analogies to express the fleeting nature of a relationship. Describing love as a sunfall or a flash or a soliloquy until finally in the bridge Valo begs to he trapped in amber just to preserve the moment. That same message pops up again in the fifth track, “The Foreverlost.” Here to be “forever lost in you” is a wish that ultimately cannot happen despite the subjects’ time together. Valo compares their time to wolves howling at the moon, to an eternal night in shangri-la, but its all temporary as he states “I don’t want to die, but I can’t stay.” If there were a hundred ways to say I love you, Ville Valo seems to be trying to find each one.