It also left frontman Ville Valo wondering, after processing the end of the band, what to do next and what the music he wanted to make in future would sound like. As it turns out, it sounds remarkably like the HIM people knew and loved – with a few new twists along the way.
His debut album under the moniker VV, Neon Noir, showcases his immediately identifiable baritone croon as he regales us with tales of love, heartbreak and loss. The opening duo of ‘Echolocate Your Love’ and ‘Run Away From the Sun’ are pure goth rock melancholia, suffusing that beloved sense of melodrama throughout. The title track, as well, features the soaring, heartstring-tugging chorus and raw melodicism that brought an entire generation of fans to tears time and time again.
But crucially, it never feels like a rehash of HIM; clearly the roots of that sound clearly ran deep within, and Valo has had time to ruminate on them and expand on them further in his own solo work, encompassing new paths that HIM never tread. It’s notable that this wasn’t deliberate; prior to writing the EP Gothica Fennica Vol. 1 and now Neon Noir, he’s made clear that even he didn’t know what he wanted his solo music to sound like. That it’s so close to what fans have loved for decades is testament to what a idiosyncratic musical force Valo has always been.
Those newer elements start to creep in as the album progresses; where ‘Loveletting’ starts in the more expected fashion, there’s a new undercurrent, particularly in the synth parts laced throughout. There’s a real impression Valo’s been listening to a lot of new wave, or perhaps that his love of it is now far more prominent. It goes from the undercurrent of ‘Loveletting’ to the driving force behind ‘The Foreverlost’, particularly in its opening moments.
It does run a little long in the tooth; ‘Saturnine Saturnalia’ feels like a natural end point for the album but there’s two further songs, not helped by the fact that ‘Zener Solitaire’ is just an instrumental interlude that, while atmospheric, doesn’t add much to the overall package. Fortunately though, it closes on not only the longest but one of the best songs of the album, the excellent ‘Vertigo Eyes’. Across its 7+ minutes, VV revisits goth, new wave and flourishes of lovelorn doom, culminating in an post-rock inspired eruption of emotion to leave the listener sated.
Ultimately, Neon Noir probably isn’t going to change anyone’s mind on VV or HIM. They’re both cut from the same morose cloth, though Neon Noir marks a successful jumping off point to push that sound in enough new directions to not feel like retreading ground. It’s quintessentially Ville Valo, his odes to lost love, heartbreak and more as heartrending as ever. If you’ve missed HIM, you’ll love this and it marks the start of the new era of VV in stirring fashion.