LA-based Nailah Hunter is a musical composer who has been recording since 2019. Her discography is described to be transcending folk or ambient music within an alternative indie/ jazz sphere and she did exactly that for Lovegaze. This is her debut album under her new label Fat Possum Records.
The creative process for Lovegaze started with Hunter secretly departing to a small coastal city along the English Channel. Returning to England a year later with newly developed sounds from the help of London-based producer Cicely Goulder, the new album creates the mood of an enchantment with a muse she found in the elasticity of nature.
Lovegaze opens with “Strange Delights,” a single released in late 2023. The song opens with a piano arrangement, and Hunter sings “Old boy, there in the summer months we would lay there.” As the song progresses, the piano subsides while the sounds build the modular synth loop that was the base of the song. Hunter was inspired by the loop created by her partner, and her drifting voice serves as the projection to the overall notion.
“Finding Mirrors” was another single released in late 2023, and to her became the lone wolf in the tracklist since the song was created from a bassline, something she hasn’t done before. Although this was a writing and creative process out of her comfort zone, her sounds stood tried and true with the synthetic soundscape that illustrates her deep infatuation with nature and looking into one’s self.
The title track “Lovegaze” is slow-paced but draws out the beautiful charm of Hunter’s voice alongside elements of a harp playing with the mystical sounds. “Lovegaze” took a slightly different approach than the previous songs due to the more detailed description of what seems to be various elements in nature. She sings “Flames upon the river creeping up into your brow vespers of the morning bring pleasure in the day / Clementine and rosemary / Moon spilling out of my mouth” for the connection she found between herself and nature.
“Bleed” was the last single released prior to Lovegaze in January 2024. The origins of the song are from the exploration Hunter took in her emotional depth that led her to the thoughts and lyrics of heartbreak alongside a celtic harp. Her lyrics of “I can’t stand it the way you won’t fight (not another day)” and “I can’t stand it the way you run out on me fight much harder or throw away the key” took a different thematic approach compared to the other tracks in the album, but Hunter took this moment to reconnect with herself, which were feelings from her teenage years.
Wrapping up the tracklist, “Into The Sun” finishes the album with Hunter’s harp in the spotlight for the entirety of the musical components. This song proves that Hunter’s voice and composing abilities are powerful enough to impress with the lone bareness of vocals and music. As it is the last song off of the album, it brings together the overall meaning of Lovegaze, as a homage to the environment and the emotions that lie within the human soul.
Nailah Hunter has been on the music scene now for just under five years, but her sound and lyrical depth showcases her wisdom. From here on out, there is only anticipation to see what else Hunter will release while under her new contract, but certainly keeping to her well-known genre, that makes her so much different from the others.
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