VV Brown - Lollipops & Politics (2012)

Vanessa Brown was born 24 October 1983 in Northampton, England, and is known professionally as VV Brown. She was an exceptional scholar, sitting her A-levels a year early, and achieving four A-grades, which led to offers from five universities, including Oxford, to study law. She turned them all down, however, to pursue a music career, which was in direct contrast to the three offers of a record deal that she received while still at school. Despite one of them being from rapper P. Diddy's label Bad Boy Records, she declined them all in order to focus on her studies. She studied violin until the age of nine but gave it up to focus on piano, vocals and trumpet, which she found easier. She completed her grade 8 trumpet examination aged 16 and played in jazz bands until the age of 21, and her childhood musical idols were jazz artists like Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie. When she was 18 she attended an open audition for the VH1 Divas concert, and was stopped outside the venue by an executive from London Records, who offered her a development deal. This ended a year later, at which point she was offered deals by Polydor in the UK and A&M Records in the US, but after releasing one single and a promotional EP called 'Back To The Music', she left both labels in 2006. Brown moved back to London and began performing in bars and clubs around the city, where she was rediscovered by executive Darcus Beese and signed to Island Records, who oversaw the recording of her debut album 'Travelling Like The Light' between 2007 and 2008, and released it in July 2009. Four singles were taken from it, with 'Shark In The Water' charting in the British, French and US charts. In 2011, prior to the mastering of Brown's second album 'Lollipops & Politics', a free preview mixtape called 'The Playground' was released through SoundCloud. Brown then announced that the first single from 'Lollipops & Politics' would be called 'Children', which was released on iTunes in America in September 2011, and that the album would follow in early 2012. However, the release was first postponed until 2013, and then called off completely, with Brown posting on her Facebook account that she "didn't feel it was right as an artist". A new album called 'Samson & Delilah', recorded in London with Dave Okumu from The Invisible and former M83 member Pierre-Marie Maulini, was released in its place in September 2013. One track from 'Lollipops & Politics' did make an appearance, with '10 Ft. Tall' being released as a non-album single, but the rest of the album has remained locked in the vaults. General opinion of the fans who have heard it is that it was an excellent record, and didn't deserve to be shelved, and so here it is for you to make up your own mind.  

Track listing

01 Children (Keep On Singing) (feat. Chiddy of Chiddy Bang)  
02 Famous 
03 Red Balloon 
04 Tough Like Glue 
05 Climbing High 
06 Heartbeat 
07 Be Yours 
08 10 Ft. Tall 
09 Circus Town 
10 Like Fire
11 Last Night