This Time Tomorrow / Otherworld

"This Time Tomorrow / Otherworld" is a collaborative single by Phoenix Rising pianist/lyricist Victor Strong and his younger half-sister, trance-rock singer Violetta DiNozzo. "This Time Tomorrow" is the third single to be taken from Victor's debut solo album "Great Expectations", and also the first single from Violetta's forthcoming fourth studio album. "Otherworld" comes from Violetta's remix album "Divided. Conquered. Revisited." and was released to support her UK arena tour of the same name. The single was released on November 26th, and impacted at #1. This makes it the fourth career #1 for both artists; for Victor this includes Phoenix Rising's discography and his featured credit on Morris David Cat's #1 hit "Ground Zero".

Background
Victor and Violetta first worked together in 2008 when they co-wrote Violetta's debut single "Wicked". Later in 2011, Violetta recorded "Otherworld" with her brother for her third studio album "Divide & Conquer", but the song did not make it onto the tracklisting. It was then included in original and remixed versions on "Divided. Conquered. Revisited.", part re-release and part remix album. The song was planned as a single to support Violetta's "Otherworld" tour in the UK, but plans were shuffled around and the tour hit the US first with no sign of the single release in the UK. In September of 2012, Victor began recording additional material for a holiday re-release of his debut album "Great Expectations", and enlisted Violetta to record a song with him for the re-release. Victor's original album version was more acoustically-driven with piano and guitar sounds, but it was remixed for single release with a version combining elements of his and Violetta's respective musical styles. The song was intended from inception to be the third single from Victor's album, and with it Violetta added "Otherworld" to the release alongside plans to finally bring her tour to the UK as an arena spectacular. The single version of "This Time Tomorrow" is also going to be included on Violetta's fourth studio album in 2013, and is the lead single from the project.

Reception
"This Time Tomorrow" premiered to an overwhelmingly positive reception; "Otherworld" was also well-received but due to the song being commercially available since February its reception was comparitively muted. Critics were particularly favourable to "This Time Tomorrow", calling its single version an "inspired" blend of the siblings' respective styles. "This Time Tomorrow" has been the main focus of the release, having made a decent impact on radio and receiving the lion's share of the single's digital sales. "Otherworld" hasn't yet gotten any attention at radio, but has also managed to place on the digital chart.

Promo CD

 * 1) This Time Tomorrow (Radio Mix)
 * 2) Otherworld (Album Mix)

CD

 * 1) This Time Tomorrow
 * 2) Otherworld
 * 3) Northern Lights
 * 4) This Girl's Trouble

Digital EP

 * 1) This Time Tomorrow
 * 2) This Time Tomorrow (Swedish House Mafia Remix)
 * 3) This Time Tomorrow (Martin Garrix Remix)
 * 4) Otherworld
 * 5) Otherworld (Cosmic Dawn Extended Mix)
 * 6) Otherworld (Ken Loi Club Mix)

This Time Tomorrow
The video opens with an extended instrumental intro; the sound is muffled and muted as Victor and Violetta wake up in the middle of a New York city street. The scene is absolutely deserted, and the siblings are confused as to how they got here and where everybody went. Victor walks into a nearby office building, singing the song as he looks around for signs of life, but not acknowledging the camera. As he moves through floors and offices he finds no life, but he does see that all the clocks appear to be running backwards. While Victor is exploring the offices looking for people, Violetta is wandering through the streets doing the same thing. There are no cars on the road, and no sign that people were ever here, except for the fact that the city looks absolutely normal. She notices an outdoor clock also running backwards, and wonders what the hell is going on with time. All the while she is also singing her parts, but like her brother she does not acknowledge the camera.

During the first chorus, the video goes to split-screen as it shows both Victor and Violetta as they continue to explore this empty world. Noticing as time continues to flow backwards, they look on in wonder as people begin to fade into existence, running on the same reversed time. Nobody seems able to see Victor or Violetta, nor do they even realize they’re running in reverse. As the song progresses and the siblings continue to watch the world around them become more populated, they notice that the reversed time is speeding up, and everything around them speeds up. Victor and Violetta keep moving forward though, at the same slow pace that they started – unaffected by the way time is moving around them. Each finds a sign that they’re looking at the future playing in reverse; a reference to the ‘world’s end’ on December 21st.

Toward the end of the song, time seems to slow back down as we get closer to the present day. Victor and Violetta take off running to find each other again. When they find each other in the same street they woke up in, they look across to the end of the street. Staring back at them are a second Victor and Violetta. The first Victor and Violetta walk up to their twins, and all four reach out their hands to each other. When they connect, the screen flashes white and when it comes back there’s only two of them again. Time is now moving forwards, and the siblings continue about their day as if they don’t realize what they’ve experienced.

Otherworld
The ‘Otherworld’ video opens to a desert under a purple sky. A blue moon is visible in the sky, much closer than Earth’s moon. The camera pans across the landscape, stopping on a castle made of stone. The music for ‘Otherworld’ begins as we zoom through a window into a throne room. The room has many clashing colours, and in the centre of it all, in a platinum throne is Violetta. She is wearing a tight black leather catsuit as she lounges about in her throne, singing dispassionately to the camera when her vocals start. Victor is in a similar throne room, also lounging in a platinum throne. He is decked out in black leather, also tight-fitting – and he is also wearing a jeweled crown on his head. He looks bored as he is hand-fed orange grapes by servants. Eventually he’s had enough and he sends them away. He gets up and walks over to a balcony looking out across the desert. From his vantage point we see a second castle, and it isn’t until we see Violetta standing on a balcony on the other castle that we find out that this is the second castle and the siblings are the rulers of opposing kingdoms.

Queen Violetta purposefully leaves her throne room, heading down to a courtyard where she has an army standing by. She sings to them, as though giving them orders. Meanwhile, King Victor is doing the same with his own army of guards. He has a neon-blue horse brought to him, and a full suit of chainmail armour. He is next seen riding out into the desert leading his army, looking the full part of a king in his armour and crown, and a broad sword in his hand. Violetta is decked out exactly the same way as her own army charges out to the battlefield. During the break, the two armies and their leaders come to a stand-still facing each other. The king and queen sing their parts to each other as if commanding the other to surrender. When neither of them do, the armies advance as the final choruses slam in. King Victor single-handedly takes on five of Queen Violetta’s knights, as she is fighting off a number of his. Eventually they set their sights on each other, leaving their horses to have a swordfight.

The King and Queen are equally matched, until King Victor makes one tiny slip and finds himself on his knees with Queen Violetta’s sword at his throat. She smiles as she thinks she had the upper hand, but King Victor swiftly slips under and around her sword, getting up to hold his own sword against her. The video ends with one final shot of them glaring intensely at each other.

Chart Performance
There was initially strong competition from Hey Lolita and Jackson Bradshaw on the single's planned release date, but as it came closer the competition fell away. On-air on-sale releases from Taylor Wolfe and Ferroxyl became the siblings' competition, but with a fuller and more timely promotional effort, "This Time Tomorrow / Otherworld" debuted at #1 on the singles chart. Digitally, "This Time Tomorrow" garnered more favour, hitting the top 3 on the iTunes chart. At release week however, more people opted for the physical release and "This Time Tomorrow" suffered even as "Otherworld" climbed (although "Otherworld" still missed the top 10 on the iTunes chart). "This Time Tomorrow" has shown an early start on the airplay chart, with "Otherworld" close to impacting.

Chart Run
TOTAL: 101,004+
 * Week 1: #1 - 101,004