Travelling Like the Light is the debut album of English musician VV Brown, released 13 July 2009 on Island Records. Initially released in the United Kingdom, the album was digitally released in the United States on 2 February 2010 and was physically released on 20 April 2010. Brown was inspired by an unsuccessful romantic relationship when writing most of the album. Despite some mixed criticism towards its eclectic musical style, the album received generally positive reviews from most music critics.

Background

Brown wrote the music and plays instruments on the album. It was inspired by 1950s music and electronic music, as well as synthesizer sounds emitted from Game Boy and Nintendo. Most of the lyrics on the album (such as those from the singles: "Crying Blood," "Leave!" and "Shark In the Water") are about a failed affair Brown endured.

Release and promotion

The album's release was preceded by a limited non-chart eligible release of "Crying Blood" on 7" vinyl and digital download. Travelling Like the Light was released 13 July 2009 on Island Records in the United Kingdom. Its United States release on 2 February 2010 coincided with the release of "Shark in the Water" as Free Single of the Week on iTunes. On 5 December 2008, she was nominated for the BBC's Sound of 2009 award, alongside acts including Little Boots and Lady Gaga.

Singles

* "Crying Blood" was released as Brown's debut single for digital download and CD single on November 3, 2008. Brown performed "Crying Blood" and a new song, "Bottles", on the first episode of the 33rd series of the BBC's Later... with Jools Holland. She was the musical guest on The Sunday Night Project on 11 January 2009 and performed "Crying Blood", as well as short extracts from other of her own songs throughout the show.

* "Leave!" was released as the second single on March 2, 2009.

* "Shark in the Water" is the third single from the album, it has been described by popjustice as "immediately brilliant - a reinterpretation rather than a continuation of the 'indie doo wop' schtick she's been working on over the last couple of singles and therefore a lot less stylised and a great deal more accessible." The video is available on YouTube and iTunes and has been described as the sort of video that only a major label could make. Shark in the Water went on to sell 500,000 singles in the U.S during the course of her promotion in 2010

* "Game Over" is the fourth single released from the album.. musosguide. Retrieved on 2010-04-17. Summary by Jamie Smith: "It’s bold and brash, somehow modern yet retro-styled, but more than anything, it makes you want to dance, and that’s what pop music is all about."

Reception

Upon its release, the album received generally positive reviews from most music critics, based on an aggregate score of 67/100 from Metacritic.. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2010-02-15. The Guardian writer Caroline Sullivan gave it 4 out of 5 stars and viewed Brown's effervescence as a strength, writing "She nimbly skips from 60s girl-group romping (Quick Fix) to Sandie Shaw-inspired melodrama to pumped-up powerpop to rockabilly and sounds entirely assured all the way through".Sullivan, Caroline. . The Guardian. Retrieved on 2010-02-15. BBC Online's Al Fox called it "an eclectic yet uniform collection of songs" and wrote that it "boasts a rare kind of head-turning indie-pop magnificence".Fox, Al. . BBC Online. Retrieved on 2010-02-15. John Meagher of The Belfast Telegraph gave the album 4 out of 5 stars and wrote favorably of Brown's singing.Meagher, John. . The Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved on 2010-02-15. MusicOMH writer Michael Cragg gave it 3½ out of 5 stars and called Brown's voice "a versatile instrument that she utilizes to brilliant effect throughout".Cragg, Michael. . MusicOMH. Retrieved on 2010-02-15. Entertainment Weeklys Leah Greenblatt gave Travelling Like the Light a B+ rating and commended Brown for her musical balance of modern and vintage sound.Greenblatt, Leah. . Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 2010-02-15. Dan Aquilante of The New York Post called the album "eclectic" and praised Brown's musical approach.Aquilante, Dan. . The New York Post. Retrieved on 2010-02-15. Q magazine gave the album 4 out of 5 stars and praised Brown's performance, called her "a force of nature".Columnist. "Review: Travelling Like the Light". Q: 118. Jul7 2009. Metros Ben East gave it 4 out of 5 stars and found Brown's style refreshing, calling it "an interesting confection with pleasingly dark lyrics".East, Ben. . Metro. Retrieved on 2010-02-15. Spin critic Barry Walters praised Brown for her "guts" and "grace", writing that her "enthusiasm immediately leaps from the grooves, but this debut also reveals an emotional and musical range her neo-retro peers lack".Walters, Barry. . Spin. Retrieved on 2010-02-15. Pete Paphides of The Times called it an "early promise".Paphides, Pete. . The Times. Retrieved on 2010-02-15

In contrast, NMEs Sam Richards perceived Brown's songwriting as lacking in substance and panned the album's assorted musical elements, stating "unless you’re hyped up on a cocktail of Sunny D and Haribo yourself, you’ll find most of this album very annoying indeed".Richards, Sam. . NME. Retrieved on 2010-02-15. Sunday Herald writer Edd McCracken found it "light on lyrics" and called it "a lukewarm, plastic pop concoction".McCracken, Edd. . Sunday Herald. Retrieved on 2010-02-19. The Observer expressed a mixed response towards its offbeat sound, describing it as "not straight to the scrapheap but kooky la-la land".Columnist. . The Observer. Retrieved on 2010-02-15. The Observers Alice Fisher commended Brown's vocal performance and perceived "glimmers of greatness", but ultimately viewed the album as "a great idea that turns out to be a bit wearisome in practice".Fisher, Alice. . The Observer. Retrieved on 2010-02-15. PopMatters writer David Smith gave the album a 5/10 rating and viewed a considerable amount of it as "filler", calling it "an obstacle course of an album, but the high points are worth it".Smith, David. . PopMatters. Retrieved on 2010-04-20. Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph gave it 3 out of 5 stars and described its music as "a hugely colourful novelty exuberance".McCormick, Neil. . The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved on 2010-02-15. The Independent writer Andy Gill gave the album 3 out of 5 stars and expressed a mixed response towards Brown's eclectic style, but ultimately found her as "a refreshing alternative to run of production-line soul divas".Gill, Andy. . The Independent. Retrieved on 2010-02-15. Yahoo! Music's Alex Denney gave Travelling Like the Light a 7/10 rating and called it "a bracing and big-hearted mix of rockabilly, doo-wop, pop and contemporary R&B in which Brown sparkles throughout".Denney, Alex. . Yahoo! Music. Retrieved on 2010-02-15. Rolling Stone writer Jody Rosen described it as "old-school party music that seems right at home in 2010" and wrote that "her music floats exhilaratingly outside of time".Rosen, Jody. . Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2010-04-22.

Despite writing that "Brown is more conduit than innovator", The A.V. Clubs Genevieve Koski gave Travelling Like the Light a B- rating and wrote that she "capably wields the well-honed retro-pop sound".Koski, Genevieve. . The A.V. Club. Retrieved on 2010-02-15. Slant Magazine's Jonathan Keefe gave the album 3½ out of 5 stars and commended Brown for her unconventional "creativity" and singing, stating "Brown brings that same sense of fearlessness to her vocal performances".Keefe, Jonathan. . Slant Magazine. Retrieved on 2010-03-25. Allmusic writer Andy Kellman gave it 4 out of 5 stars and described it as "genuine, natural, and deep as mishmash throwback pop can get", while comparing her musical style to "being the child of Kirsty MacColl and the sibling of Jazmine Sullivan, messing with pop traditions as she courts and reprimands with a large, youthful voice that positively dances".Kellman, Andy. . Allmusic. Retrieved on 2010-02-19. Digital Spy's Nick Levine gave it 4 out of 5 stars and wrote that the album "paints Brown as a talented songwriter, an inventive producer and a singer capable of everything from playful shrieks to hushed, soulful intimacy".Levine, Nick. . Digital Spy. Retrieved on 2010-02-15. USA Todays Elysa Gardner gave the album 3½ out of 4 stars and wrote that it "reveals both a knack for killer hooks and, vocally, a rare mix of power and grace".Gardner, Elysa. . USA Today. Retrieved on 2010-03-30. Los Angeles Times writer Mikael Wood gave the album 3 out of 4 stars and viewed its slower songs as undistinctive, but wrote "even when her material blands out, there's a fresh-faced charm to Brown's delivery that sets her apart from the vintage-vinyl pack. She's the rare retro-soulster unafraid to act her age".Wood, Mikael. . Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2010-02-15.

Personnel

Credits for Travelling Like the Light adapted from Allmusic.. Allmusic. Retrieved on 2010-03-25.

* Lorenzo Agius – cover photo

* James Banbury – string arrangements

* VV Brown – performer, producer

* Mike Crossey – mixing

* Steve Dub – producer, mixing

* Richard Edgeler – assistant

* Mark Aaron James – design

* Alexis Smith – programming

* Jeremy Wheatley – producer, mixing

Chart history

References

Artist/Band Information

Vanessa Brown (born October 24, 1983), also known as V.V. Brown is an English singer, songwriter, model, and producer signed to Universal Records in the United Kingdom and to EMI's Capitol Records in the United States. The Los Angeles Times and UK newspaper The Independent have both named Brown an artist to watch in 2009/2010.

Early life and career

Vanessa Brown was born in Northampton, England. She is the eldest of six siblings; Her mother is Jamaican and her father is Puerto Rican. She attended Overstone Park School near Northampton, which her parents own and work at. Brown learned to play the piano, developed her vocals and took classical and jazz piano lessons at a musical arts school, which she attended on weekends.

Brown was given her name "VV" from her peers as an MC nickname when she attended her middle school. Her love for Hip Hop and battling gave her the MC name VV and it soon caught on to be her stage name VV Brown. Her love for hip hop and artists such as J Dillah and Q tip still exist.

Brown studied violin at the age of 9 but gave it up because she found she was better at the piano and trumpet. Brown completed her grade 8 Jazz trumpet at the age of 16 and went on to play in Jazz bands up to the age of 21 which gave her profound love for Jazz music.

Growing up, V.V. listened to jazz artists like Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie. Brown earned four "A" grades at her A levels, studying at Kingsthorpe Upper School (now Kingsthorpe Community College) a year early; she was offered places at five top UK universities to study law including Oxford, King's College London, LSE and York. She declined the offers to follow a career in music.

P. Diddy attempted to sign her to his label Bad Boy Records.

VV Brown was first offered a deal by Gut records when she was 14 but due to educational commitments she decided to finish her studies.

She joined a punk band at 15 and had the opportunity to tour Japan.

She was then offered a deal by Danny Simms, the manager and mogul associated with Bob Marley. Brown declined to finish her studies.

At 18 Brown was invited to an open audition for VH1 divas by friends and was stopped outside the venue by an executive from London Records. Brown was offered a development deal by London records. The development soon came to an end and at 19 Brown was offered a deal by Polydor records. Between the age of 19 and 23 Browns experience with Polydor failed and she was dropped. "

"It was a very traumatic experience. I validated myself by my music, I was a small girl who didn't know who she was and all I had were these little piano demos. I kick myself for not taking enough control of the situation, I got swept away in the theatrics of the biz and Los angeles, but it taught me a huge lesson about owning what you do and following your instincts"

Brown lived in Los Angeles for 2 years after her failed attempt. She received a lot of support from grammy awarded writer Rick Knowles and Salaam Remi. This allowed her to gain her confidence back.

Brown moved back to London and began her journey again and performed in bars and clubs around London like the barfly and the Betsy Trootwood. At age 25 Brown was re discovered by executive Darcus Beese, who was involved in the signings of Amy Winehouse and Florence And The Machine and Brown was signed to island records.

Traveling Like the Light was then recorded in 2007-2008.

Touring

Brown played many festivals and gigs in 2008. Brown was invited by Damon Albarn to play African Express tour. She sang with Fela Kuti's son Femi. Brown toured with Ladyhawke and The Ting Tings. She has been confirmed for Camden Crawl, The Great Escape, Evolution Music, Camp Bestival, Supersonic, and Turning Point festivals while awaiting confirmation on several others. In March 2009 Brown played for the Teenage Cancer Trust event at the Royal Albert Hall. In June she played the Glastonbury Festival. Throughout the summer she played every major festival including Glastonbury, at which she was the only new artist to perform on the main stage. She states " it was a massive achievement in my life to do such a big stage at such a early point in my career."

VV Brown has also toured with The Script, Ida Maria and collaborated with artists such as The Babyshambles, Get Cape wear Fly, Chickmunk, N Dubbs, Reverand And The Makers, Q-Tip and many more.

VV Brown did a sold out tour throughout the UK. She spoke of being overwhelmed about how many people sang the words so loud in the crowd to the point where the band couldn't be heard. She was pleased about the fact that a core fan base was being created and she looks forward to that fan base growing. Her most recent performance was during the Young Voices concert tour, in which she was a guest star; venues for the tour included the O2.

Brown was also one of the last bands to play at the legendary venue the Astroria in 2009.

In 2009 Brown performed with Grace Jones and Sly and Robbie for the Island 50th event at Shepherds Bush Empire. This was a showcase of new and old talent on the label.

Brown supported Swedish electronic band Little Dragon on the US leg of their tour in 2010.http and was an opening act for P!nk in her upcoming UK leg of her summer Carnival Tour in 2010 .http

VV Brown's 2009 tour was an electric mix of music, fashion and entertainment with covers like 'Use Somebody' by Kings of Leon and one of her opening acts is actually her sister Jay Brown and up and coming band The Stow.http

VV Brown toured as an opening act for Maroon 5 in 2010; this was her most extensive North American tour yet.http She also did a small sold out club headline tour in the states to capacities of 500 and towards the end of the year was invited to perform for the National Grammy Committee in Los Angeles California.

In 2010 Brown also performed at the America festival SXSW at the British Embassy as well as a secondary gig with AOL. The AOL performance was a great success and led to huge support from the AOL team throughout Browns career.

Brown was requested by Q tip to perform with him at the Jack Daniel event in Los Angeles June 2010 which led to a further writing collaboration and friendship.

VV Brown also embarked a French headline tour in November 2010 and created a video art show collaborating with young installation artists curated, created and project managed by an art company called Jotta.

Due to the success Brown had in France and the association with the French/Morocon market Brown went on to perform a sold out show in Morocco for 20,000 people. " I cant believe that Im in Morocco and they know Shark in the water, its surreal and I never thought that it would be a gig this big, we landed and expected a small venue, my management didnt fill me in, or I didnt read the email, so when we got here we was pretty scared, we prepared a 30 min set and had to stretch it out to 90 minutes.. we pulled it off I think? "

VV Brown has also been a part of many high end cooperate gigs such as Cartier, Private Jet companies, Phone Brands and Fashion houses.

Brown is currently preparing for her first show in the UK at the South Bank of whom she is performing with Annie Lennox, Paloma Faith and Kate Nash. Her 30 minute set will consist of a quartet, omnichord and a stripped down version of the album and a possible new song.

Musical style

Brown describes her sound as "Alternative Pop Music" "I have always been in love with pop music but love to experiment and alter it so it is translated it in different ways" VV Brown is currently developing her style for her second album and is very much interested in darker tones and the classic side of songwriting. "Im inspired by producers and writers who have an opened mind to refrain from being in a box but to embrace the fusion of music"

Brown gets a lot of her influences from different places including 1980"s punk, Sex Pistols, the B52"s and Ella Fitzgerald. She claims her mix heritage and the fact that she grew up in London makes her find it difficult to just be a slave to one specific genre and her love for music shifts in and out of "great music. Brown states "The biz has this model that you have to be consistently in one lane. Why? I want to be in many, safely indicating of course, but to stay in one lane doest feel natural to me, I want to experiment, change it up, mix it up"

Fashion

The most distinctive aspect of Brown's style is her trademark retro fringe, nearly always rolled into a flattop with the rest of her hair left long but lately she has experimented with other styles moving away from her trademark look " Im excited about the second album because fashion wise its a chance to grow" .http

In November 2008 VV Brown took part in the Naomi Campbell charity fashion show at which she catwalked with the likes of models such as Tyson Beckford and Daisy Lowe with many others.

On 20 February 2009 Brown also modelled and performed at the Ashish fashion for London Fashion Week.http

VV Brown has been confirmed as one of the new faces of Marks & Spencer, starring in adverts alongside Twiggy, Lisa Snowdon, Ana Beatriz Barros and Dannii Minoguehttp Her contract has been renewed and has been confirmed as the face of Marks and spencers alongside Danni,Twiggy,Ana and Lisa in 2011.

"As a black women I hope I can do whatever I can to contribute to Blackness being more commercialised. We have so many parts of the media that focus on one type of beauty and I hope my little contribution adds to this.

Brown, who stands at 5 ft 11in),http was signed to Next Model Management after a chance meeting with one of their agents on a transatlantic flight.http

On 27 January 2009 Brown did her first shoot for Vogue magazine which is in the April/May issue.

On 30 June 2009 Brown's online vintage clothing store, called www.vvvintage.com, went live.

Brown has been in several international magazines with numerous spreads such as ID, Paper,LOVE, Elle, Cosmopoliton, American vogue, Teen Vogue, British Vogue and more. She has worked with top photographers like Rankin and continues to experiment with her love of photography and fashion.

VV Brown has also been involved with new magazines including The Tip, an online magazine by young editor Christiana Mkwabe.

Charity

Brown has been involved in various charities such as The Teenage Cancer Trust, Oxfam, NSPCC, Animal Rights,Recycling Foundation and the Bottle Top campaign and has done various works contributing to poverty in Africa and Fair trade. She also made a video for Global Cool.

Brown has also been involved in the Rockcorps shows which allows teenagers to work for there community in aid for a ticket to see a concert. Brown took part in both the London Rockcorps shows and did work in Paris with French young teenagers with a following concert.

Television

November 2010, VV Brown was featured on the MTV series World of Jenks. The documentary series followed her as she tried to break into the U.S. music scene.

Her music has also been synched in several American TV shows and movies across America such as CSI, Sex In The City, Ugly Betty, The Back Up Plan, Lesbian Vampire Killers and several more ( See VV Brown IMBD)

VV Brown had her TV debut in the UK on Jools Holland in 2008 and also appeared on other T.V shows such as The Alan Carr Show, The album Chart Show, T4, GMTV.

She made her French TV debut on Taratata in 2009 of which the following day the album debut at number 1 on the digital chart. It led to other T.V shows such as Le Grand Journal and other huge French T.V shows which solidified a strong success for Brown in this territory.

VV Brown is currently in talks for doing a voice over for a huge French animation movie. " I am absolutley excited about this. This is something that has been on my tick list for quite sometime"

Brown landed 2 huge advertisement deal with the French bank "BNP" and a very reputable French furniture company, off which her song LEAVE was used for 2 years contributing to her general awareness and success in France.

Browns American TV Debut happened on the Rachael Ray show leading to several other TV shows such as David Letterman, Carson Daily and The Ellen Degeneres Show. She also performed on the BET show Black Girls Rock in 2010 performing alongside artists like Keisha Cole, Jill Scott, Keri Hilson and Mary J Blige. " Brown states " I found this a great opputunity as a black women to be positive about other black women in music and the general black community"

In February 2011 Brown's song, travelling like the light, has currently been synched in the new BT advert in the UK as well as landing a huge 2 year synch deal on Canadian television for a car advertisement. Despite a lack of enormous awareness internationally Brown remains to have a consistent career in synch ability and has been used in many advertisements, films, fashion shows and art exhibitions .

Discography

Albums

Songwriting Credits

Brown has also been involved in writing songs for and with other artists such as UK band "The Sugababes". She wrote the song "Denial" and "No can do" of which both songs debut in the UK top 10 singles chart. She is also a writer on the Pussy Cat Doll record, writing the song "I dont need a Man" and was a main backing vocalist on the whole PCD record in 2007. She has many other writing projects that she has been involved in and Brown continues to write songs for other artists whilst being published by EMI publishing through president Guy Moot and Fran Malyan.

EMI publishing has been a huge support to Brown's career. She was signed to EMI publishing at the age of 18 and has a 10 year career with them to date.

Brown's dream is to eventually move from Pop music and go into Film scoring.

Future Projects

VV brown is currently working on a 150 paged Graphic Novel called the City Of Abacus with David Allain which will be released in April 2011. A launch will take place in April with Art Company Jotta. Diamond comics have agreed to distribute the comic and both parties are looking to find other distributors to stock the graphic novel in major book stores. "The comic has taken a while and we originally wanted to release it as a collection of series but we felt by concentrating on the whole book we would have more time to make it amazing. Now that its neally finished we can market the whole book as a body of work"

Brown is also looking to make a documentary about the symbol of the car in Los Angeles.

Brown also has hopes to experiment with music and visual arts and has spoken about putting on exhibitions in the future.

In 2011 it was said in an interview by soul culture from grammy winner Jazmine Sulivan that " Someone that I do love is VV Brown. When I first heard her, I was surprised as her voice was so rich, I wasn’t expecting that to come out of her. It surprised me and the fist thing I thought was, ‘Wow we would sound great together’. To have two rich voices on a track would sound cool.

References

Category:English female singers

Category:British singers

Category:Black British musicians

Category:English people of American descent

Category:English people of Jamaican descent

Category:English people of Portuguese descent

Category:English people of French descent

Category:Living people

Category:1983 births

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