Crying Blood Explained

Crying Blood
Cover:CryingBlood vv.jpg
Type:single
Artist:V V Brown
Album:Travelling Like the Light
Released:3 November 2008 (UK)
Genre:Power pop[1]
Length:2:31
Label:Island Records

"Crying Blood" is the debut single by singer V V Brown (also known by her writing alias Geeki). It was released on 3 November 2008 and was accompanied by a music video. The song did not chart as it was not eligible to do so. It was released as a limited release on Digital download and 7-inch vinyl.Brown wrote this song after finishing with her mean American boyfriend and returning to England. Despite its lyrical woe, the melody is upbeat. She explained to Q magazine: “That was an accident, actually. I simply wanted to give the impression, musically, that I was over him. It’s true he was terribly mean, but ultimately I’m an optimistic sort.”.[2] This song is also featured on Just Dance 2 as a downloadable song. "Crying Blood" was the opening title song to the movie Lesbian Vampire Killers starring Mathew Horne and James Corden

Critical reception

MusicOMH.com gave the song a very positive review by saying "Crying Blood explodes out of the speakers like a hyperactive child in a Sunny D factory, all OTT vocals and perfectly pitched desperation", they then went on to talk about what Brown calls doo-wop indie and then said "there’s a definite ‘60s vibe what with all the cute backing vocals".[3]

clickmusic.com gave the song 3 stars out of 5. The review starts positively: "imagine Mousse T singing 'The Monster Mash' - that's the sound of VV Brown's debut offering 'Crying Blood'. It's pacey and she does have an effortlessly good voice, but the song does borrow heavily from 60s rock 'n' roll sounds".[4]

Music video

The video was released onto YouTube on 16 September 2008. The video starts off with Brown walking out of the dark and pressing a button on her keyboard. She then starts dancing and singing inside the new white background, then she presses the button again and changes it to multi colour. It changes colour multiple times in the video, green, blue, yellow, pink, orange etc. Then when it comes up to the first minute Brown's band and also a dog are seen. Then ordinary people start to dance together whilst VV sings. Then, like the game, Tetris pieces start to fall from the sky to create some stairs for Brown which she then climbs up and down. Then it turns into a cartoon with sketched version of Brown and her band. Then she turns back to normal and later there appears to be more than one of her dancing around on the screen. Then Brown presses another key on her keyboard and it turns into a video game; once she has completed that level it turns back to normal. Then Brown leads the gang (three of them are her) in a new dance. One of them walks off to the keyboard and presses a key.

Track listing

These are the track listings for the single and EP:[5]

Single:

  1. "Crying Blood"

EP

  1. "Crying Blood"
  2. Andrew Weatherall Remix
  3. Andrew Weatherall Dub
  4. Moody Boyz Front Line Re-Rub
  5. Moody Boyz Front Line Dub
  6. Hannah Holland Remix

Live performances

  1. Sunday Night Project[6]
  2. T4[7]
  3. Later With Jools Holland (Crying Blood/Bottles)[8]

Notes and References

  1. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/jul/10/vv-brown-travelling-like-the-light VV Brown: Travelling Like The Light
  2. Web site: Crying Blood by V.V. Brown . Songfacts . Tonemedia.com . 27 July 2013.
  3. Web site: VV Brown - Crying Blood (Island) . Michael Cragg . OMH . Musicomh.com . 27 July 2013.
  4. Web site: VV Brown - Crying Blood . Rachel Edwards . Clickmusic.com . 27 July 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150703062929/http://www.clickmusic.com/singles/article/VV-Brown-Crying-Blood . 3 July 2015 . dead .
  5. [iTunes Store]
  6. V V Brown On Sunday Night Project . . 27 July 2013.
  7. V V Brown - Crying Blood T4 performance . . 27 July 2013.
  8. V V Brown on Later with Jools Holland . . 27 July 2013.