VV - Echolocate Your Love - Single [Review]

Former HIM (Finnish goth metal band which disbanded in 2017) frontman Ville Valo (who currently goes by VV as his artist name) is set to release his debut solo album Neon Noir sometime next year (in 2023) and has thus far released three singles from it - "Loveletting" (reviewed here), "Echolocate Your Love," and "The Foreverlost." (He also released a three-track EP titled Gothica Fennica Vol. 1 in 2020, but, as far as I know, it has not yet been revealed whether or not any of those three songs will be featured on the album.) "Echolocate Your Love," as was the case with the previous four songs Valo released, is very much in the same vein as HIM, managing to be both soft and heavy at the same time, melodious and beautiful, and simultaneously electronic and organic. Synths and guitar carry most of the weight of the track, even sometimes drowning out Ville's vocals (which, as much as I absolutely adore the song, is one of my faults with "Loveletting"). Ville himself commented on "Echolocate Your Love," saying, "It's a sonic step-by-step guide on how to survive, and perhaps even enjoy, the realm of VV with its abundance of things that go bump in the night. It's a teary mascara marathon between Robert Smith and Ozzy, with a dash of hope." While I absolutely love his description here as it's 100% spot-on, that is also a perfect description of HIM, not just VV, which makes sense because he really is just continuing with HIM except without the other guys. The steps to which Valo refers are found primarily in the bridge between the verses and the chorus: "If you want to dream what I dream," he gently instructs in his signature velvet vocals, "don't close your eyes. If you want to feel what I feel, kill the light." I also wanted to make note of an interpretation that I saw from a fellow fan on social media. Named Timea, they say, "I'm trying to build this song around Hekate because she is the mystical goddess of darkness and the Moon. The three-faced one who shows the past, the present and the future. But there is the mystique of love in it, the moon is the other side of the sun, like love, not only the sunny side has a shadowy side. Submerging in the sea, I think the subconscious is the experience of the unconscious, when a person is tormented by suspicions and cannot face them until he descends into the depths. For me, echolocate your love means certainty when we are waiting for confirmation that this love is real." This is a beautiful and unique analysis of the song, and it absolutely holds up if you look at the song's poetic lyrics, especially in the second verse. While I prefer "Loveletting," this is definitely another strong single from Neon Noir.