The Virginmarys – Sitting Ducks – EP Review

Source // The Virginmarys

Macclesfield rockers The Virginmarys have returned with their new EP Sitting Ducks (released on 22nd September) and those that fell in love with last years acclaimed album Divides will want to grab this forthwith! Specialising in highly accessible, radio-friendly thumping grooves with a lick of soul and no end of hooks, Sitting Ducks is a quick-fire EP that manages to cram a lot into its relatively brief duration.

A little background from the band themselves will help to paint a vivid picture….”We wanted to create this EP ourselves by self-producing and self-releasing, in order to get music out directly to our fans – our prime goal is to always get the music to you. Our slogan in putting this all together has been Peace, Love, Truth, Music – it’s part of the essence of who we are, and what this project is about. We’ve wanted to release music that fans can move to and feel – sonics and words that make you feel empowered, but still never lose the heartbreaking quality of what it is to live, love, and lose.”

Well, The Virginmarys are songwriters of serious note and you can certainly feel the integrity bleeding through each track on Sitting Ducks, the subtle emotional wallop of “Sleep” proving particularly addictive as its highly melodic fragility envelops the listener in a shroud of acoustic guitars and heart-wrenching vocals.

For music you “move to”, look no further than the chart-bothering monster that is “Sitting Ducks”, a foot-stomper that should be achieving mass radio airplay but its the aforementioned “Sleep” we found ourselves returning to time and time again.

To be fair, theses tunes may be a little ‘light’ for the usual Worship Metal reader but there’s nowt wrong with the canny balancing act between foot-stomping, hand-clapping rockers and the more introspective moments displayed here. Sitting Ducks is simply an EP of outstanding songs made for fans of guitar music regardless of how ‘heavy’ it is.

We sure as hell feel it! 8/10

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