single // I Sold Your Heart On eBay
It's been a long, long time coming - nearly two
years in fact - but Adrian Morris' Vic Twenty have
returned with a new three-track single. In the time since 'Txt Msg'
and the split with Angela 'Piney Gir' Penhaligon,
Vic Twenty have moved from Daniel Miller's near enough non-starting
Credible Sexy Units label ('Txt Msg' was the only release)
to TSquare / Lucky Pierre for this new single, 'I
Sold Your Heart On eBay'. The inner sleeve proclaims that 'The main
synthesizers used on this recording were the Yamaha CS15 and Sequential
Circuits Sixtrack', synth fans, and the former was also listed on
the sleeve of The Human League's seminal Dare - for synthpop
credentials, it doesn't get more faithful than that.
'I Sold Your Heart On eBay' is a clever, witty,
topical and cynical slice of early 1980s-style electropop, featuring
layer upon layer of synth riffs and all manner of squelchy noises
over a thudding beat. Adrian here sounds refreshingly like Andy
McLuskey on some of the early (and best) OMD tracks, a cheery edge
to his voice as he delivers the chorus 'I sold your heart on
eBay / I've pawned my world / I'm leaving' while chiming keyboards
cascade behind him. Vic Twenty have become highly adept at writing
songs simultaneously embracing and mocking modern culture - 'I Sold
Your Heart On eBay' is a stroke of synthetic genius. Anything that
bashes Coldplay on the way is alright by me.
But the inventiveness doesn't stop there - 'Electronic
Flirt' is a hyperactive, faster-paced number with a Speak &
Spell-era Depeche Mode vibe and sinister vocal edge,
while the stunning 'Wrong' is dark, melancholy electropop, a clearly
hurt Morris ruminating 'I thought I was right but I couldn't have
been more wrong' with a vocal that recalls Karl Hyde back in the
pre-Underworld Freur days. Three stunning, outstanding cuts from
Vic Twenty, whetting the appetite for the first album, Electrostalinist.
Top Marx.
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