VK Lynne's Perfectly Aged "Whiskey Or Water"

Pretty much the only thing I know about whiskey is this; the best stuff gets better with age. The flavors grow deeper and more complex, and those things we appreciate are heightened in ways that can overwhelm our senses. Time is the heat forge that reduces and condenses the liquor into the sort of thing people spend their entire day waiting for, much like how we can turn fruit into the kind of thick syrup you can only have a small taste of, lest you feel your blood turning to sugar.

As a creator, you don't always know what is going to come to define your work. There are times you will pour yourself into a piece that melts away from the audience, and there are times when a piece you didn't think much of will resonate and endure. For VK Lynne, her defining work remains "Whiskey Or Water", which turns fifteen this year. It can be an odd sensation to be so connected to your past, while trying to build your present and future, but we need to remember whoever we are now is a direct result of who we were. These last fifteen years wouldn't have played out as they did if we made different choices, which means "Whiskey Or Water" is a marker laid on the path to this artistic whirlwind.

Time gives us perspective, where we can see how the pieces of the jigsaw fit together, even if we can't take scissors to them to arrange our memories as we want them to. VK sings in the title track, "I never know who I am until I stare into this glass that's in my hand." The image of that inspiration will be etched in our souls, but time allows us the opportunity to take a chisel to the edges and turn that picture into something we can smile at. VK's weary vocals are a testament to the struggle of existential questioning (and perhaps a good reason why people smarter than me take to drinking in the first place), and hearing that somber resignation shows us just how bright things have been able to burn since then.

Like the rainbow kaleidoscope she is, the album stretches to every corner and color of VK's personality. These sorts of albums tell you who someone truly is, revealing the complexity of the human mind. Contrast that with those who mine the same ore time and time again (that would be me), and we begin to see and appreciate the people who have more than one way to love them. As our metaphor reminds us, depth and complexity is the goal.

We open on "Find Me", one of VK's most rousing songs. With jangling guitars and a dynamic swell, I can't hear VK launch into the chorus without the mental image of singing those words on a stage, arms open and ready to invite the world into her show. The irony of that song not being the one I discovered VK through does make me regret the time I could have spent basking in the glow of this pink sunrise. Today's exploration of 'blues metal' is the flip-side to this bit of 'blues pop', and shows us there are infinite shades of blue left to explore.

Elvis told us about his wish for a blue Christmas, but how many artists can slip Christmas onto an album and not have it stick out like a sore thumb? It's a time that can absolutely drag us into the depths, so it's natural to explore those feelings. VK comes to the conclusion that love is the answer, but it comes with the realization that love is a complicated state of mind, and it's one we sometimes need to be taught. Friction can create heat, but it can also fray. Love stitches us back together when we make the choice to embrace those ties.

This record sounds like a crossroads, the proverbial 'end of the beginning and beginning of the end'; that end being one chapter of life, and the beginning being the next. As "Sunday" closes the record with VK saying, "Baby we can do this on a summer Sunday night, when the sun sets over LA", it hinted at the start of something new, something disconnected from the issues of the past. The summer sunset pushed the past beyond the horizon, letting the morning light the next day shine on a new path.

No one could have known what these following fifteen years would bring, but looking back with our perfect hindsight, it feels fitting we are only now returning to VK Lynne as a solo artist. "Whiskey Or Water" was a purging of so much, it was inevitably going to take time for enough life to build up in her to match the depth and meaning contained in these songs.

Is VK whiskey or water? Which am I? These are questions we can ask, but the answer is simple. We are always both, just with the balance titled depending on how strong a drink we need that day. I may not be able to tolerate alcohol, but I'll make an exception for a sip of what VK is pouring.