
Finding your soulmate is a bit like surviving the war – Everyone’s happy for you, but nobody wants to know how you made it out alive. Folk-pop duo VIRENS explores just how much two hearts have to be torn apart in order to be seamlessly glued back together.
But they find an approach that is familiar and easy on the ears. Most of the music on “Couples Therapy” is constructed around the Earthy acoustic pop that’s been so popular during the 2010s.
In fact, album opener “salut!” has the potential to become a hit within the community of indie-folk enthusiasts. It’s a song that does a good job of blending the two singing voices and of spelling out the EP’s message. It’s music about coming apart in order to be put together.
“Stich me back up” treads on similar ground, with the two songwriters promising each other the courage to reveal their darkest truths as a way of moving forward.
Next, “submitted to sin,” may feature the kind of title you’d expect from 80s Soft Cell, but it’s actually a tender folkie tune about starring down the precipice of a potentially broken relationship.
And speaking about synth-pop, “Don’t you want me” adds gravitas and acoustic guitars to the Human League’s classic. Finally, the sparse “three-leaf clover” is an earnest confession of love.
People fall in and out of love each day. But as VIRENS understands, it’s only the ones that make it through who have a story worth singing about.