After huge hype and brilliant singles, this albums misses the mark.
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5
After over two years of single releases, twin sisters Miranda and Elektra Kilbey, also known as Say Lou Lou, are finally ready to release their debut album. Being majorly hyped for the past two years, including a spot on the BBC Sound of 2014 long list, as well as being included in THE LIST 2014, this record has been a long time in the making, and with the buzz for Say Lou Lou dying down through 2014, they might have waited too long.
Singles like ‘Better in the Dark’ and ‘Everything We Touch’ are catchy nuggets of pure pop. With sing-along choruses that wouldn’t be out of place in an Ellie Goulding track, and expert production, this is Say Lou Lou at their best. These two tracks in particular stand out from the beige background of the rest of the album, probably as they’re truly great tracks – it’s just unfortunate the rest of the record doesn’t follow suit.
A lot of Lucid Dreaming tends to blur into one. The dreamy soundscape, although perfectly lovely, doesn’t really show anything innovative. The record is only 45 minutes, but listening to it feels a lot longer, as it’s so repetitive. It’s frustrating, as the singles released show that Say Lou Lou know how to write a killer pop track, and the production is top notch, but they just don’t sustain the quality of the singles throughout the album.
Album closer ‘Skylights’ features an interesting brass section, with what I think is meant to be a dramatic bridge. Unfortunately, it sounds more like one of the dramatic teen-angst fuelled songs in High School Musical, which I’m pretty sure wasn’t intentional. ‘Games for Girls’, which features Norwegian producer Lindstrøm, is just as twee, with squeaking synthesisers and childish vocals.
Lucid Dreaming was released a year too late. If it’d been released last year in the height of the buzz around Say Lou Lou, it might perform better, if only because people would remember the name; but now, it’s just a fairly average pop album. With no excitement around the name Say Lou Lou, it’ll have fallen into obscurity by the time we reach June.
Lucid Dreaming is out on April the 6th via à Deux records, but is currently being streamed by NPR media in full.
