‘Valley Girl’ was the first Frank Zappa song I ever heard, a withering and ironic view of female airheads in California accompanied by the vacuous voice-over of one such jellyhead; the 90210 equivalent of Vicky Pollard from ‘Little Britain’.
This Valley Girl is one Valerie Perkins from London, whose songs start life at her home studio and who has lent her vocals to a number of other artists, including Tony Nwackukwu of Attica Blues (their ‘Test Don’t Test’ album being one of the lost gems from the former glory days of trip-hop). Valerie’s vocals are suitably breathy if at times overwrought, particularly on the increasingly repetitive and grating ‘Dizzy Star’. Her delivery is the kind that you might expect to appear on post-Dance/Electronica albums by artists such as Tricky, Orbital or Death in Vegas.
Her musical arrangements fall into similar musical genres but with a stronger leaning towards the beats of Urban Soul/Hip-Hop. ‘Flow’ (very reminiscent of Attica Blues) is the main song on this 4-track sampler and its soulful funk/pop overtones provide a much better backdrop for her mannered singing style. The next track ‘Addicted’ manages to keep the quality control at a modestly high level, giving Valerie another suitable melody line for her voice. By the last track – after the sloppy ‘Dizzy Star’ – the ideas have run out and there’s little in ‘So Rare’ that can distract me from the whining in her singing.
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Valley Girl’s no airhead and her lyrics are by no means vacuous even if they do amount to little more than tit-bits about love. Her musical talent is beyond question but she’ll need to push herself and broaden that talent further if she’s going to sustain her decidedly individual voice (that will probably divide listeners no matter what) across anything as remotely grand as the full-blown album due in March of next year.
Cautiously recommended.
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