Louie Lahana consistently offers a unique and interesting approach to songwriting, and nothing speaks more effectively in favour of this than his latest release.
Sad But True is a beautiful new song, one that fuses the reflective delicacy of folk with the rhythm and grit of hip hop, but does so in a manner that actually makes it feel like a whole new style of alternative pop is emerging.
Spanning close to four and a half minutes, you really get swept away on the changing moments of this song in a compelling manner. The organic set-up is entrancing and satisfying in itself, and among this you get moments of melody, of jazz, harmonies and poetic ideas. Later on though, Lahana’s natural poetry is met with intensely fascinating story-telling in the form of his rap or spoken word verses, and this use of contrast is incredibly powerful.
While the track is a totally refreshing and artistic offering, the lyrics and the intricacies offer so much more than this, and the further you get into the journey – and indeed with each revisit – the more these clever and deeply thoughtful details start to stand out and connect.
Nobody sets the scene quite like Louie Lahana, the lyrics on this particular release are stunning – so much so that you don’t want to miss a line, you don’t want to miss a bar or a thought, as every moment is so cleverly captured and uniquely underlined.
Sad But True is a truly artistic and consistently impressive release that creates its own rules and flows with the natural rhythm of these as it pours through. Lahana’s voice and his style of writing are fast becoming easily recognisable traits within an otherwise overly familiar music world. Creative freedom and identity unite to stunning results. Even the resolve to the hook is completely unexpected, yet beautifully satisfying as it comes in to contrast with the imagery of elsewhere. I’m excited to hear where else the music takes him in the future.
fire escape
grey smoke forming shapes
dusty window across
bodies moving with haste
obviously lost
The taste for salty paprika cucumber
maple syrup summer
under awnings there’s shrouds
yawning plumbs blooming clouds
camel smoking
cloaking the crowds
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