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Artist: | Sam Millar |
Title: | Sam Millar Virtual Summer BLACK VINYL LP |
Released: | 27/09/2024 |
Please note this release date may be subject to change and also stock arrival can be subject to delays, in particular if this is an overseas release. |
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Format: | BLACK VINYL LP |
Country | EU/US |
Barcode: | 5055006569025 |
Catalogue number: | MOSH690LP |
SKU: | WLF21539 |
Condition: | BRAND NEW & SEALED |
The items we sell are brand new and unused official releases supplied to us by record companies, unless stated otherwise in the listing. Generally all items are sealed (this will be stated in the listing title). Occasionally we may open an LP to confirm any colour variant. We sometimes sell used items, this will be shown in the listing. |
Picture a time when you could have a good time all the time. It was an era when fast cars rolled under neon lights, yachts were a sensible housing decision and fighting for your right to party was a full time occupation. This mythical age had an equally flamboyant soundtrack to match, and it blared from boomboxes and dashboards in every time zone. It was the 1980s, and bands like Van Halen, Toto and Def Leppard personified a summertime sound built on big beats, bigger melodies and choruses so epic that singing along was the law, and places like Vegas, Hollywood, and Miami Beach became hedonistic epicenters of a global, sonic heatwave.
Cruelly overlooked among these hard-partying capitals is the little town of Wigan, just outside of Manchester – average annual rainfall: lots. It was there that multi-talented musician Sam Millar was born, and where that 80s vibe has found new life in the form of his debut solo record. It’s called Virtual Summer, and it’s 14 slabs of the slickest sounds this side of a hot pink Mustang with the top down and the stereo way, way up. “Wigan’s just a little town, it’s not the nicest place – I know you don’t expect this sort of thing to come out of here, but that’s why it did,” says Millar. “Half the time it’s raining and miserable, so Virtual Summer is like tapping into summer whenever you need to, just put it on and it’s always there for you.” Raised on a parental diet of Slade, Springsteen and Sabbath, it wasn’t long before Millar soon discovered his own hard rocking obsessions, and if there’s a familiar ring to any of Virtual Summer’s dopamine cannon blasts then it’s because it’s the culmination of the guitar-slinging maverick’s lifelong adoration for the finely honed melodic perfection of the giants of AOR, and Toto in particular.
“I guess you could call it cheesy, but there’s something about being able to sing a song after you’ve heard one
chorus, the feeling it gives you – it’s just so positive,” he says. Of course this didn’t all happen overnight. Millar has played and toured as a guitarist for years in other bands, but it wasn’t until the pandemic that his love of the sunny-side-up sparked the idea to try his own hand at that perfect balance of catchy choruses and timeless melody. He wrote, recorded and released a debut taster EP entirely off his own back, and the response to the EP and ensuing live shows was nothing less than ecstatic. It soon caught the attention of Earache Records. The rest was history.
“I’ve written, produced and played everything myself,” he says, “There isn’t really a scene for this, and that’s a good thing – it’s feelgood radio pop, and there’s a place for that now. Just listen to Taylor Swift or The 1975 – those big gated snare drums – it sounds so different from so much other pop music and that’s a great thing.”
And from the Van Halen-loving fireworks of album-opener The Killing Floor to the synth-laden slickness of Deja Vu, it’s an album that wears its heart on its sleeve, and it makes no apology for where it comes from. “Fooling Yourself is quite heavy, but in my head I wanted it to be a rocked up version of ABBA. People probably think I’m mad, but I love ABBA! Dancing On My Own is quite heavily Huey Lewis and the News and Hall and Oates territory, and there’s a track called When The Summer Ends that channels all my Toto into one song. My music may be tongue-in-cheek, but it’s no joke. I can’t call it a guilty pleasure, because why would you feel guilty about that?”
SIDE A
A1 - The Killing Floor
A2 - Fooling Yourself
A3 - Something I'll Regret
A4 - When the Summer Ends
A5 - Chardonnay
SIDE B
B1 - Showbiz
B2 - Forget You
B3 - Dancing On My Own
B4 - Deja Vu
B5 - Neanderthal Man
B6 - Meet Me Halfway
format | vinyl |
year of release | 2024 |
artist | Sam Millar |
Recently In Stock | No |
Forthcoming | No |
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