Double Virgo
Shakedown
YEAR0001
Jul 28, 2025
Internet Unique
Oh, indie sleaze—Y2K’s snotty little sibling. For those who may seek for a definition of it, you would possibly discover Double Virgo, the London duo of Sam Fenton and Jezmi Tarik Fehmi, and their group with Nina Cristante (aka NINA), bar italia, mid-way via its musical subheading. The air that hangs round each teams reeks of “too cool for college,” a label that doesn’t come off negatively if you happen to can again it up with envelope-pushing music. Double Virgo’s new album Shakedown sadly digs into the dregs of the pattern and by no means actually surfaces.
Lacking Cristante, Shakedown is a two headed Cerberus—rather less formidable and unable to assault from as many angles because it ought to. Songs lie stagnantly monotone and the alluringly languid guitar and vocals that Nina delivered to the desk are noticeably absent.
Vocals on tracks like “coi boi” and “purple card” whine and croon their method over worn out chords in her stead, and the acoustic guitar and cheery Oh-wa-ah-ohs of “bemused” are paying homage to a cool child’s tackle Fitz & The Tantrums.
Lyrics are tough to succeed in via their supply, and once you do they greet you obnoxiously—“You give nice head/You’re actually good in mattress/Your breath’s so candy/I do know you’re actually neat” they listing off in “Function Play.”
The place this recipe does type of shine is when Double Virgo diversifies its components. The finely chopped guitar on “due dilettante” gives some nuance, and when the band offers the components up altogether for the acoustic observe “only for a buzz up,” drugged out vocals are joined by backing harmonies that minimize off simply earlier than it builds into the album’s traditional banality.
Whereas Double Virgo’s popularity as NINA adjacents gives immunity, it’s exhausting to not see Shakedown as one thing that immediately challenges its integrity. Vocals and lyrics drag this one away into the slacker rock ether, one other stone within the pedestal for its champions to sit down upon. If sleaze is to “behave in an immoral, corrupt, or sordid method,” Double Virgo has given it its dingy theme that you simply would possibly wish to maintain your drink away from. (www.doublevirgo.bandcamp.com)
Writer ranking: 3/10
Price this album
Common reader ranking: 2/10
