No one could accuse the Kilby twins, Miranda and Elektra, of rushing things – it took three years from the release of their debut single Maybe You to reach the point where an entire long player was made available, perhaps a sign of how the way we consume music has shifted away from the long-form. It sometimes feels as though albums are now often an afterthought., a historical obligation rather than the flagship release, taking us back to the early Sixties era when LPs were effectively a couple of singles and a lot of filler. Thankfully, Say Lou Lou’s debut LP Lucid Dreaming proved to be well worth the wait, a carefully crafted and attentively collated collection of the loveliest, genre-defying music that you’ll ever hear. If you hear it at all, of course – Say Lou Lou seems to have slipped by relatively unnoticed and that is a tragedy, though not an unusual one in a world where music has become increasingly niche and splintered.
The album sets things up with the glorious Everything We Touch, a track that perfectly encapsulates everything about the band, as it moves from a delicate, luxuriantly orchestrated ballad to soaringly anthemic dance floor filler, sliding effortless across genre boundaries as it goes, taking in elements of dance music, shoegazing, electronica and pure, unashamed pop. It’s the sign that this will be something special and the rest of the album – well, most of it – rises to the challenge set down by this opener.
Glitter is pure – well, 90% pure – disco fever, aptly enough given the title, sliding into electro-pop for the infectious chorus, and maintaining that curious sense of melancholy that underpins much of the best Euro disco and electroclash. Games for Girls, on the other hand, is pure 1980s flavour bubble gum – cute, catchy and just that little bit enough off-kilter to give it an edge. The twins are a Swedish/Australian hybrid, and their music reflects this culturally split upbringing, having both a familiarity with and distance from Euro-pop in all its glory and madness.
If it sounds by this point that Say Lou Lou is simply rehashing the glories of the past, let me reassure you. The band hit enough recognisable cultural triggers to take you back to times and places long gone, but they are no mere imitators. Instead, they blend these influences and ideas into something fresh and affecting. On tracks like Julian, a tale of cross-border love, they create a sound that is entirely their own, a cinematic depth and a haunting atmosphere that is awash with emotional potency and a sense of darkness beneath the passion. Angels Above Me is a fine example of this, an almost kitchen sink daydream that reaches a grandiose style, as is Peppermint, which feels like St Etienne recording a David Lynch soundtrack.
Beloved is the album highlight – hell, one of the musical highlights of the last twenty years I would say. Opening as an ethereal, dreamy tale of romantic longing before steadily building to crescendo after crescendo in one of the most perfectly crafted slices of pop music that you’ll ever hear, a clash of irresistible dance floor joy and lyrical despair that works as flawlessly as any piece of music I can recall. In a sensible universe, Say Lou Lou are the biggest band on the planet, based entirely on this track. We don’t live in a sensible world of course, and most of you probably haven’t even heard this song.
Hard for a Man (stop that sniggering!) feels like a step back from this masterpiece, but only for a moment. There’s a Eurovision vibe to this track, and I say that as a compliment – Sweden really should’ve tried to persuade the twins to represent them as their shimmering pop vibe was a perfect fit for what Eurovision should be. Wilder than the Wind has a moodily downbeat feel of a slow pop classic, and Nothing But a Heartbeat returns the album to an anthemic pop vibe as the LP approaches its finale, while closer Skylights is the perfect coda, a shining, sunrise chill out number that has a joy and hopefulness to it that suggests that all the emotional angst of the preceding songs will not be enough to break the narrator (and so, by default, the listener), finally building to an anthemic sense of defiance and celebration. It’s a rather extraordinary finale to a remarkable album.
Lucid Dreaming is constructed like an emotional journey, pulling you into the emotional highs and lows effectively, even though the actual songs are unconnected – it’s a great example of why albums need to be played intact and in order. The songs certainly work as stand-alone tunes, but the overall impact is so much greater when listened to as intended.
There will be those who find this to be over-produced; certainly, it’s as polished a musical production as you will ever hear. But I don’t think it takes away from the song craft or the perfectly blended vocals, the emotional clout of the songs or the atmospherics. Rather, it all comes together extremely well, having a grandeur and a beauty that fits the emotionally distant yet still warm voices of the two singers. The result is as satisfying a pop record as you could ever hope to hear, and one that has been on constant repeat at Desperate Living HQ – hell, we even bought the vinyl version as well as the digital edition.
DAVID FLINT
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