The Golden Virgins
Songs of Praise
(XL)
Northern England’s The Golden Virgins offer up as fresh a debut set as you’ll hear this year. Influences are as diverse as Joe Jackson, Shane McGowan and medieval madrigals, yet it rocks. Singer Lucas Penney leaves you concerned about his mental and physical well-being. Keyboardist David Younger commands a broad palette of sounds that signify each song’s character as vividly as the compulsion (lust, alcohol, jealousy) that gives it birth. It’s trend-free truth that rewards the pure pop searcher.
—Doug Taylor
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2007.
