Album Review: Lucia Stavros – Burn You Up

The ebb and flow of celestial, gossamer sounds

Based in New York, versed harpist/singer/songwriter Lucia Stavros, will never cease to amaze. She has played at a multitude of distinguished venues, including the renowned Carnegie Hall and Apollo Theater both in Manhattan, New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, Théâtre Montansier de Versailles in Versailles, France, The Universität der Künste Berlin, University Hall Uppsala in Uppsala, Sweden and the Auditorio Nacional inMadrid, Spain – all while serving as a music educator for the past 15 years! 

“Break Your Bones,” with The Eargoggle, “Curva” with Julian Maliandi and “Spell Against Gods” with Vinicius Castro/Patrick Phillips all feature Lucia as a vocalist. She records and tours with Ghost Ensemble and she has co-produced/co-wrote Green and Glass’s debut album. She does have personal projects too though and generally these endeavors traverse music’s connection to emotions and spirituality. Now she has released her first record solely under her own name, Burn You Up.

Starting off ethereal and slow, the first track on Burn You Up, “Working Stiffs,” is a perfect example of her dreamlike lyricism and elegant composure. The rhythm leans R&B while Lucia sings directly to a subject that is “breaking humans down and harming for [their] gain.” Perhaps she is referring to capitalism. Perhaps she is speaking to someone in particular. We may never know.

“Burn You Up” begins with a harp-plucking attitude. Each verse is sassy, cautionary and surrounds interludes of buzzing “ahs.” It climaxes in a chaotic combination of (at least) guitar, drums, vocals and a stamp of piano, ending with ominous feedback, sizzling as if the track had burned up…

In contrast to the previous track, “Star Explodes” elicits an easy, diaphanous, star-lit energy in the album. This is the sort of song that leaves the listener wondering about the vastness of the universe and its infinite possibilities. The rest of Burn You Up ebbs and flows in this same way. Lucia places lyrics and notes to perfectly fit the different waves of intensity within her album. She has mastered the art of elegant and celestial sounds. Deli Magazine spoke in sincerity when it described Lucia as having “show-stealing, often mysterious lyricism, creat[ing] an intergenerational atmosphere chamber pop that feels as modern as it does baroque.”