A pivotal record for contemporary times; bright, free, adamant, optimistic. Brain Worms is RVG’s fullest, most pristine album yet.

All throughout Brain Worms, it’s apparent that this is a band in very fine form. Album opener ‘Common Ground’ sets the tone for what’s to come; a shiny, thrilling, punch of an album, with all the beloved RVG hallmarks. Vager’s voice is unfiltered and commanding as ever when delivering her clever, not-quite-ironic lyrics. Here, though, those lyrics feel so much less resigned to yearning, and so much more defiant and joyous.

‘Tambourine’ is the only Covid song Vager wrote when “trying not to write Covid songs”, and it’s a painfully honest portrait of grieving mid-isolation. ‘Brain Worms’ tells the all-too-familiar story of a person falling down the internet rabbit hole and finding comfort in conspiracies. ‘Nothing Really Changes’ is a keys-heavy new wave-ish thing, while closer ‘Tropic of Cancer’ sparkles with Vager’s self-assured new manifesto: I know what I’m like, and I know how I get. If you think I’m strange, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Bloxham, Nolte, and Wallace are flawlessly adept in bringing Vager’s songwriting to life. Recorded in London at Snap Studios with James Trevascus (Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, PJ Harvey), all ten tracks surge with lush sounds and clear intentions and the magic of an acoustic guitar once owned by Kate Bush, given to her by Tears for Fears (who, legend has it, wrote ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ on it).

Between the four bandmates lead singer and guitarist Vager, guitarist Reuben Bloxham, drummer Marc Nolte and bassist Isabele Wallace this is the most confident they’ve ever felt in RVG. They’ve moved past their influences, pushed themselves, and tried new things. And they have made a record they can, by all accounts, call their best.

“Brain Worms feels like the antithesis to what a post-pandemic record could easily be. For a band who were already writing music about being reclusive “we were depressed and not going outside on our first two albums” the enforced isolation and time to think gave Vager space to write about anything she wanted. And, it turned out, she was ready to write about acceptance.

“If we could only make one more album, it would be this one,” says Vager.

"Easily one of the most vital bands on the Aussie scene today" Rolling Stone.

“A calling card for outsiders... dynamic and vital post-punk" The Guardian.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Hypnotic goth-influenced vocals and soaring melodic guitar lines weave around each-other in a sonic maelstrom reminiscent of Echo & The Bunnymen sharing a stage with Interpol. It's bold and brash, brilliantly played and undeniably huge.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Common Ground
A2 Midnight Sun
A3 It's Not Easy
A4 Tambourine
A5 Brain Worms
Side B
B1 You're The Reason
B2 Squid
B3 Giant Snake
B4 Nothing Really Changes
B5 Tropic Of Cancer

Debut album from Australian band RVG drawing on an array of influences from Echo and the Bunnymen, The Psychedelic Furs, and The Go Betweens. A Quality of Mercy is made up of Eight songs. Classic songs. Songs recorded by the band, live off the floor, at Melbourne’s iconic rock’n’roll pub, The Tote. Songs that leant on the band’s heroes —the Go-Betweens, the Soft Boys, the Smiths— whilst never sounding like homage or pastiche. Songs hitting that sweet spot between light and dark, employing guitars both angular and jangling. Songs passionately sung by Romy Vager, the eponymous leader of a band once called, in full, Romy Vager Group. All of the songs on A Quality Of Mercy find Vager trying to move beyond ego, beyond the simple confessional of the songwriter, hoping to find perspective on both world and self. In such, these songs are at once personal and universal, intimate and grand, timely and timeless. They’re classic songs. And there’s eight of them. Adding up to a perfectly-formed debut that says so much, yet gets out in under half-an-hour.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Displaying a perfect mix between jangling guitars and evocative vocal aesthetic (there's definitely a bit of Jarvis in there somewhere), RVG manage to switch from syncopated rhythmic psychedelia to soaring anthemic post-punk without batting an eyelid. Perfectly produced, and brilliantly immersive throughout.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Quality Of Mercy
2. Cause And Effect
3. IBM
4. Heart Paste
5. The Eggshell World
6. Vincent Van Gogh
7. Feral Beach
8. That's All

Debut 12" single from Australian band RVG, taking two tracks from their debut album set for release in July via Fat Possum. Classic songs. Songs recorded by the band, live off the floor, at Melbourne’s iconic rock’n’roll pub, The Tote. Songs that leant on the band’s heroes —the Go-Betweens, the Soft Boys, the Smiths— whilst never sounding like homage or pastiche. Songs hitting that sweet spot between light and dark, employing guitars both angular and jangling. Songs passionately sung by Romy Vager, the eponymous leader of a band once called, in full, Romy Vager Group.


For fans of the Go-betweens