Raaaaa! The screamy emo kids are still putting out records hand over fist. Van Johnson is the latest to commit their take on the style to vinyl, offering up two songs of rough and frenzied crying and guitar hammering to appease your need for such antics. First up is ‘Like a Ghost’ which displays excitable guitar and kind of distorted, harsh yelling plus a breakdown where you can clap your hands high above your head whilst the sweat pours down, before they rejoin the fray. It reminds me of much, perhaps the Red Scare or something else from the very late 90s when bands just yelled relentlessly over vaguely melodic, chaotic emo. On the flip you get ‘A Dance’, which starts out with a moody atmospheric intro, vocals being spat out with a ferocity, before hurtling headlong into the confusion. Instruments crash around in a flurry, everyone falls over, oh the humanity! They also have one bit where they stop playing and scream a bit. Nice. There’s a delightful breakdown with piano later on in the song too, this is my favourite of the two tracks.
Nowt new to hear on this single, but heck, VJ are good at this and will soothe your appetite for boys crying and making an emotional racket, especially if you are digging other stuff around at the moment like La Quiete. Can’t complain about that.