TR+ Singles Club: the Virginmarys

the virginmarys

Welcome back to the TeamRock+ Singles Club, the new way to discover the latest new music.This week we have a special track for you: the latest and current single from the Virginmarys, a band long lauded in the pages of Classic Rock.

Oh yeah? Never ‘erd of them.

Then where have you been, old bean? The ‘Marys have been around since 2009 and came to our attention the following year with their Cast The First Stone mini-album. In fact, we can remember bumping into Toby Jepson – one time Little Angel, now a producer – at Hard Rock Hell and him raving about this band he was working with, visibly excited, throwing around comparisons to Guns N’ Roses and the like. When you heard the first fruits of their labours, you could see why: here was a band that rocked hard but had a new lyrical voice, that had the anthemic power of a Foo Fighters and the northern wit and chippy attitude of the Arctic Monkeys. This was something that wasn’t formulaic – not just another rock band copying Led Zeppelin or AC/DC but doing something new and relevant.

So what happened?

They released a bunch of killer singles and EPs between 2010 and 2012 and then their debut album King Of Conflict in 2013. That year they won Best Breakthrough act at the 2013 Classic Rock Awards and toured their arses off. But, in a cruel twist, found that they fell between the cracks when it came to media coverage. (The NME etc claimed that they were ‘too rock’ for the indie-tastes of their readership. The rock media, meanwhile, said they were ‘too indie’ for their fire-breathing rockers. It was all bollocks.) Second album Divides came out in 2016 and was one of Classic Rock’s albums of the year. New single Sweet Loretta kicks things up a gear again – and was voted Track Of The Week by CR readers a couple of weeks back – more upbeat than the Divides material and a must-hear for anyone who loves the modern alt.rock of the Foos, QOTSA, Biffy etc.

TeamRock+ members can click the link below to download a MP3 of Sweet Loretta. If you can’t see the link you’re either not signed in or not a member. Take a free trial to get access to all of the latest issues of Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog, plus thousands of archive stories from the world of rock and metal.

Click here for your free download. (NB: This link will take you to the Virginmarys site and requires signup to their mailing list to unlock the code.)

For more info on the Virginmarys, visit their website or follow them on Facebook.

The TeamRock+ Single Club continues every Friday with a new track to download every week, handpicked by the TeamRock team. Come back next week for more free music.

6 things you need to know about… The Virginmarys