The atmospheric romance of The Victoriana is uniquely their own. Derek Page, the New Orleans-based artist under the name The Victoriana, wrote “(These) Sickly Flowers” during the beginning of the pandemic at Moon Palace Studios by Chris King (Cold Showers, Kaitak). As graceful as it is insistent, the track is veiled in a melancholy sweetness as guitars tangle passionately with one another. Page’s forlorn vocals are rife with yearning and a cold sorrow that don’t feel contrived—they hover weightlessly over the composition’s glimmering gloom.
The song “is a desperately ambivalent plea for self-improvement, pictured as a wicked garden watered by our darker aspects, overgrown and paradoxically attractive or repellent,” says Page. And those “darker aspects” are deeply felt in “(These) Sickly Flowers”—swimming in unfulfilment and longing, the song would fit alongside the likes of 4AD’s classic catalog, The Cult‘s more sultry work or Gene Love’s Jezebel‘s most epic.
Listen below:
“(These) Sickly Flowers” is the a-side to The Victoriana’s new 7″ vinyl release out via Dream Recordings today. The release is a follow up to the 2018 LP, Fleetingly, But Completely—a Sylvian-esque, dazzling take on new post-punk music.
Buy the 7″ here.
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