VRL is the acronym for Valerie Rose Lohman, a voice actor and musician,
and “Kill 4 U Die 4 U” is the passionate single taken from the artist’s
upcoming EP.
The track begins with atmospheric keyboard, which is followed by
dance-like percussion and Lohman’s expressive, Kate Bush-esque singing.
The recording vacillates between full-on production and quieter moments
where many aural elements drop out. Toward the song’s end, there’s a
place where Lohman is joined by multi-tracks of her own voice. It sounds
a touch like a Lohman choir.
The song’s title may remind you of Prince’s Purple Rain era hit, “I
Would Die 4 U” because the number four is written as a numeral, and the
word “you” is replaced by the letter “U.” However, whereas the Prince
hit took on a messianic feel, where Prince even announces, “I’m your
messiah,” VRL’s single is more personal/romantic.
Lyrics to this song read a little bit like a movie plot. In the movies,
we often see a good girl that falls hard for the bad boy, for example.
She is so devoted, in fact, she willingly joins in with his life of
crime. In some instances, she kills for her lover, and eventually dies
for him. It’s unclear whether the object of VRL’s obsession is male or
female, but the principle remains the same. No matter who it is, this is
blind love. Whenever someone is willing to violate their morals because
of love, it is certainly misdirected obsession.
One assumes this crazy love is also young love. The young are much more
prone to such impulsive behavior. You don’t expect to find senior
citizens dying for love, for example. Thus, this track likely has an age
range appeal. (Unless, of course, and older person hears it and fondly
recalls when love once burned this furiously).
These words put love to the ultimate test: How much does one person love
another person? What would he/she/they do to prove that love? It’s not
enough to just say, ‘I love you.’ No, one partner may ask the other
partner to prove their love. It may make you think about the things
you’re most passionate about. Is there something you’d kill or die for?
Most of us would be hard pressed to think of anything that extreme. Many
have vowed to either die or kill (or both) for their country, but in
normal life circumstances, neither of these two options are ever
necessary.
Although keyboards mostly drive this track, one also hears electric
guitar running through it. It’s a single that presents VRL’s singing
voice well. She invests her vocal with the emotion of one that just
might do something extreme for her mate. Going back to the movie
analogy, it is the sort of song one can well imagine being played during
the closing credits to a film. Maybe this movie is a modern-day Film
Noir, featuring a dangerously beautiful femme fatale. Don’t wait for the
movie, though, because VRL has already given us a kind of aural film.
And it is one killer track.
-Dan MacIntosh
Follow on VRL on INSTAGRAM
'Kill 4 U Die 4 U' IS OUT 14TH FEBRUARY 2022