THE CAPE-TOWN-BASED SINGER/SONGWRITER IS SET FREE FROM THE SOMBRE EXPERIENCES OF HEARTBREAK, SUBSEQUENTLY ALLOWING HER TO FIND THE COURAGE TO CELEBRATE SELF-LOVE, LIGHT & TOGETHERNESS.
Oftentimes when I listen to music, my mind and body are transported to another time in my life or I’m left romanticising about memories I still keep with me. I might remember something I felt years ago, or I might feel released from recent emotional pains that bring me solace. Ultimately, the bliss feeling of simply just condensing into an escape of calming lyrical tunes is all that I’m happy to appreciate. I love that music arouses and evokes the mind to remember and also imagine. Music, very easily, can take me back to moments that might have seemed insignificant when they happened, but hold wisdom in hindsight. Rarely, though, do I hear an album for the first time and feel myself spirited away into the body and psyche of someone else. With her second album, Nice, master sonic songstress Luh’ra has achieved this impressive feat.
Also: In conversation with Luh’ra about Nice ahead of full album release.
FOR FANS OF CLEO SOL, JOY CROOKES, AMA LOU AND EMILY KING THIS ALBUM IS ONE TO ADD TO YOUR PLAYLIST.
Written over the course of one and a half years, including after the unfortunate experience of a personal breakup, with this album Luh’ra manages to make me feel the life-sapping and destroying sorrow of loving and losing someone so close. Then, rolling up and down on emotional highs and lows that feel somewhat like being at the mercy of an expanding and raging ocean tide, Nice revitalises listeners. She injects life and hope back into me with her own memories. In Self-love, this intimate track shares personal voice recordings, empowering lines intertwined and tangled up with Luh’ra’s spoken-word storytelling to bring listeners into the heart of her past.
Each track is unique and there’s not a bad song here. The standout tracks are Falling Apart and Give It All. They both are a reminder that even in sadness, the memories of loved ones and better times are something to be cherished instead of pushed away. Written shortly after a breakup, Luh’ra shares more about the inspirations for Falling Apart, “The song is a reflection on falling for superficial aspects of someone. But unfortunately, we know deep down when something isn’t meant to be. No matter how long we want to romanticise a connection, it can only end in falling apart ”.
On 23 July 2022, a successful EP launch of Nice premiered at Gorgeous George. Expect further success from this album as the months continue.
