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NYC rock band Love Crushed Velvet uses VR to Explore Human Vulnerability On “Saddened Eyes”

By Kath Galasso on July 15, 2022

The song will be featured on the band’s upcoming album, ‘Souls and the Barren Heart,’ out 7/22

“Are you ready to have your mind blown? Meet Love Crushed Velvet” – Goldmine

Stream “Saddened Eyes” on all platforms HERE, and pre-save ‘Souls and the Barren Heart’ HERE

NYC post-punk outfit Love Crushed Velvet has just released “Saddened Eyes,” the latest single from their new album ‘Souls and the Barren Heart,’ out next Friday, July 22^nd. According to frontman and songwriter A.L.X., the song explores the process of trying to find humanity, vulnerability and affirmation in love. “It addresses how we often try to be stoic in how we project ourselves, yet it’s in vulnerable moments when you truly see deep emotions in someone’s eyes that allow you to understand and read into their heart.”

Accompanying the single is a stirring new music video shot using virtual reality technology, which alongside their recent video for “The Future,” makes Love Crushed one of the first artists to fully embrace VR in a way that is accessible to a broad audience. “When making the video, we decided to try to capture those sentiments in virtual reality, because the emotions and thoughts that drove the song felt like they could be best represented multidimensionally, rather than just boxing ourselves into trying to visually communicate what we are trying to get across via a conventional, two-dimensional screen,” A.L.X. explains. “At the time, I was drawn to the dichotomy of finding happiness through sadness, and the fact that you can have a foot in both emotions at the same time and have it still makes sense.”

New York City is a place that’s at its best when it’s at its worst. The urban decay of the 70s unleashed a musical explosion that still reverberates nearly half a century later. Post-pandemic Manhattan vibes volatile again. The raw power of punk and the sonic blur of post-punk are back in full force with ‘Souls and the Barren Heart.’

Love Crushed Velvet is the creative vision of A.L.X., a regionalist who believes in the power of varied music scenes and assembling different bands for different records – improvising, revising, consolidating – an organic approach that retains the spark of late night jams, of a musical rapport forming in real time.

The new album sprang from spontaneity, and even in its polished form that energy comes through. Like with their 2010 debut and follow-up EP, a fierce group of players was assembled for the album under producer David Maurice. Australian drummer Alex Carapetis (Julian Casablancas, Nine Inch Nails) anchors the group. Rob Ritchie and Erik Deutsch shape the textures on guitar and Keyboards.

More than influences or even instrumentation, this is music fueled by the untamed chaos of urban life, by passion over precision. While the textures and colors of the music have shifted from record to record, A.L.X.’s hypnotic vocals are the through-line connecting the body of work as a whole: past, present and future, condensed into 8 fierce songs. The sound of the city, in all its gritty glory.