‘Gravity’ artwork by Brooke Shaden Virginia started work on her forthcoming album The Thread in October 2020, after the end of the brief encounter that had such a profound impact. After a few short weeks of ‘romance’, cruelly rejected and devastated by the experience and with a need to chart the journey, she sat at the piano, “and the songs were already there.” “The writing and making of the record was like an unstoppable train. I was writing so quickly, the songs were flooding out. I’d finish a song and two days later be recording in the studio. It was a different process. The writing was a necessity and a life-line.” All of the songs on The Thread are written and arranged by Virginia alongside platinum-selling producer William Jackson (The Pigeon Detectives, The Cribs, Kaiser Chiefs) at Eiger Studios, Leeds. It’s a working relationship and friendship which began 35 years ago. Where ‘Gravity’ marks the beginning and sense of being pulled into someone’s forcefield, the title track which follows (marked by Felix Burling’s haunting flugelhorn) is about the persuasiveness of that connection, the sense of her new lover “imbuing everything”. However the next track, ‘The Morning’, deals with the pain of being dismissed the morning after. Propelled by Carole King-style confessional songwriting and ‘70s drums, it is raw and emotional, compounded by ‘The Kestrel’ – based on the Gerard Manley Hopkins poem The Windhover – which features birdsong samples to explore the metaphor of predator and prey. Her sense of prey is detailed in ‘The Taking’, unravelling the affair which brought the relationship to its abrupt end and piecing together physical evidence, (“You even took the free coffee/and I kept the card receipt”). Together with ‘Swipe’ lamenting the perils of online dating (“These are the dangers of talking with strangers” ) … the album starts to shift. ‘Wolf Moon’ arrives with its jazzy feel and marks the turning point, a loosening of the taut connection. And with the sardonic, tongue-in-cheek flow of ‘Glorious’, Virginia is beginning to heal. ‘New Moon Landing’ marks the arrival and joy of new, ‘real’ love, with the woman who becomes her wife. “She emerged with everything that had been missing. A connection which was whole, warm and grounded,”, or as her future wife eloquently put it: “from the shit, grew roses”. By 2021The Thread was nearly finished, but before the album was complete, life intervened. Virginia’s beloved father died, and then, after four and a half glorious years together, she lost her wife who died in the spring of 2025. The Thread now resumes its journey and is released in February 2026. “I had to complete the circle,” says Virginia. “The Bach prelude at the end of the album marks the memory of my dad – a piece he played all his life, Bach was his great love and he taught me to play the prelude as a child” The photograph on the album cover is of Virginia aged two, with her Dad and sister. He passed down to her a love of melody and musical knowledge – a well of experience she drew from to create this album about moving from destructive obsession to enduring love. For a record shrouded by such immense heartache, by contrast it is sonically immensely uplifting as The Thread plays out a true reflection of the turbulent emotive experience of life. It encapsulates our uncontrollable urges, the carefree will to wholeheartedly follow joy, the resilience to withstand unfathomable trauma and the long winding road to recovery and healing. THE THREAD TRACK LISTING - Gravity
- The Thread
- The Morning
- The Kestrel
- The Taking
- Spellbound
- Swipe
- Red Flag
- Wolf Moon
- Glorious
- New Moon Landing
- Prelude In C
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