24 February 2026
Artist: BLACK VIIOLET
Who: Alter-ego of American garage punk ‘n’ roll
turbo The Darts‘ front Amazon Nicole Laurenne.
New album: DARK BLUE
Her 2nd.
Press info: “Dark Blue sits in that liminal space where jazz, noir pop, and trip-hop overlap, but the real engine is Nicole. Her writing, her arranging, her ability to take the tension of long months on the road and turn it into something soft, bruised, and unmistakably hers.
It is a record full of late-night light, small scars, little mercies, and the quiet
ache of wanting someone who is always a few thousand miles away.”
Laurenne: “When you’re doing what you love but the person
you love is always far away, you get stretched thin.”
📸 Brian Kasnyik
TUTV: Dark Blue connects fluently with debut album After You, continuing to soundtrack your night out at your favorite downtown club. Laurenne‘s 24/7 songwriting production (The Darts & solo) doesn’t affect the quality of her torch songs, not in the slightest.
You’re drawn into this new, relaxing record from her first sensual whispers on ( ‘Dark Blue’ and ‘One’ with some smooth organ touches). Jazzy-brassy trip-hop musings (‘Gimme Your Love’ / ‘Not Too Bad’ / the 1936 jazz standard ‘Why Don’t You Do Right?’ / ‘No Fool Like Me’ and the vulnerable closer ‘Whiskey Eyes’) and some more up-tempo reflections (‘Take Me (Or Leave Me)’ / ‘Got Me Down’ / ‘Just Met’) intertwin.
Dark Blue is an ode to love, as blissful as it can be, it also can cause a kind of tristesse when lovers need to miss each other for some time, as Nicole Laurenne experiences when she’s flying around half of the world to entertain us music addicts.
Think of soul legend Otis Redding‘s heartfelt ballads on his classic Blue L (with a lot of Sam Cooke songs on it) from 1965. Similar melancholic mood swings, similar amorous longings, similar midnight hour lovesickness.
Black Viiolet echoes universal emotions that many of us can relate to.
That’s what pop-ular music was, is, and always be about.
SINGLE
STREAM/BUY ALBUM