-Teneya’s Take-

Usually when I get a song stuck in my head, it’s a song I haven’t listened to in a while. I’ll be singing Mumford and Sons in the shower and then the urge to sing “Bad Romance” comes over me and I have to belt it out in the shower when no one is home. And only music I will end up falling in love with (or am already in love with) sticks before I learn all the words to it.

It’s rare a rock band sticks with me the way Victory does. It’s just so. Damn. Catchy.  It’s the somewhat dorky, unabashed quirkiness you sing loudest when no one is listening. I think to an extent most people have an amount of pride when they listen to music, even in private. Most people don’t dance; they don’t bob their heads while they cook dinner.

Victory says screw your pride. You’re going to have fun, and you’re going to like it. Even if you don’t notice it at first, songs like “Bad Man” and “This, That or This” crawl into your mind and take hold. The more you listen, the more you’ll like them.

There’s so much I could point out that I don’t like about this album; things that would be an instant “no-absolutely-not” when I sit down to think critically about what I’m listening to. I don’t like the production; I don’t like the lyrics or the rifts. I feel like I’ve heard it all before. And yet… This album has made it onto my favorites list.

Why? Why does a song about spending all your cash on vinyl make me want to sing? I’ve never bought an excessive amount of material to play on a record player with my paycheck! I’ve barely ever had a paycheck! And for some reason I find myself identifying heavily with a song about being broke because OOPS I spent all my money on music again. And it’s not just one song; it’s literally every track, over and over, growing on me.

Even if you don’t like Victory is Music at first, be wary if you give it a chance to grow on you, because it inevitably will. It’s the goofiness. It’s the simplicity. It’s acknowledging that you’re listening to music because you don’t care, and you’re going to dance because you don’t care, and you’re going to sing because YOU. JUST. DON’T. CARE. Victory has scored a nice fat win in this album (pun intended). This is really cheesy, but secretly, you really like cheese.