The LP of L.P.

LP has usually been in the background of popular music— she’s penned hits for the likes of Rihanna, Christina Aguilera, Leona Lewis, Rita Ora and Cher.  She also had one of those songs that you’ve heard of but never knew who was singing when her track. “Into the Wild” was featured in a Citibank commercial back in 2012.  This year she’s finally released her own EP, titled Forever For Now (which does feature the previously mentioned song) in an attempt to find her own place as a singer.

LP has her own style– whistles, ukelele and vocal runs that shouldn’t really work, do. These facests all define her.  From the opening notes of the title track, “Forever For Now,” it sounds like the perfect backing music to Tarantino’s Kill Bill; there’s a great balance between the softness, the whistling, and the belted chorus. “Sing while the melody’s sung / Break like a wave on the run / …I can’t say anymore I just know that it won’t last forever.”

Each song has a driving rhythm, which makes sense when you consider the use of “Into the Wild” on the aforementioned commercial. “Heavenly Light” is a bouncy song with the same heartbeat rhythm behind it. It starts and never stops, as LP sings  “We don’t gotta touch the ground / Just flow, let go / They’re coming with the heavenly light.”

There is a small pattern in many of the album’s songs in which the verses start off delicate and calm until the chorus hits, then the vocals just break loose with an equal rhythm section behind it. In that sense, most of the songs will sound similar, but that’s not to say the energy behind each song is the same. There’s a varying balance of the rhythm and the other musical elements that gives each song it’s own feel. LP has a distinct voice that complements each song. In some songs, like “Heavenly Light,” she goes for the note that you think she can’t possibly hit, but does with ease. In others, it’s the same driving rhythm she does so well with delicate vocals.

It’s not something you’d expect with this album– her voice is high and odd at first, but the energy behind it all is one that shows she knows what she’s doing.  An odd layered harmony of “doo’s” here, a ukulele there– it’s a quirky characteristic that just fits so well. In the end, it’s fun, it’s energetic and it’s LP.