La Luz

La Luz are a critically acclaimed American rock band, founded in 2012 by Shana Cleveland. Shana is the last original member of this all-female four-piece and, as it stands, La Luz consists of Shana Cleveland (lead vocalist and guitarist), Audrey Johnson (drums), Maryam Qudus (keyboard and producer) and Lee Johnson (bass).

With four studio albums in the bag (excluding a self-released live recording), ‘News of the Universe’ is their fifth offering released directly by Sub Pop Records. All their previous records were on, Sub Pop’s offshoot label for emerging talent, Hardly Records. Their most successful album to date came from ‘Floating Features’ (2018), their third album, which peaked at #33 in the UK’s official independent charts.

Straight-away, you can hear why they are on the Sub Pop Records. Dreamy indie pop meets sweetly surreal psychedelia make perfect label mates to the likes of The Shins and Beach House. Saying that, there is nothing that sounds as precious and powerful as La Luz.

Inventive and unique, we are introduced to ‘News of the Universe’ with the band singing a cappella on ‘Reaching Up to the Sun’. From this cathartic chorus to a tumbling space odyssey on ‘Strange World’, we are ready to be taken into the realms of sublime imagination. As pop-infused vocals harmonies layered with otherworldly keyboards and quirky guitars promises to whisk us out of this world and skyrocket us into another.

Moving into experimental orbit, the highly energetic ‘Dandelions’ morphs into a fantastical and trippy track and ‘Poppies’ transports us to the late 60’s/early 70’s hippy era, where all good psychedelic rock hails from, and where we stay. ‘Good Luck With Your Secret’ gravitates towards a spiritual trippy dimension. Think The Doors meets Simon and Garfunkel with a keyboard solo thrown in for good measure!

As Cleveland herself puts it, ‘Always in Love’ is “the heart of the album”. She symbolises the very essence of love by beginning with fragility and ending in a kickass guitar solo. Continuing our infectiously upbeat interdimensional journey, we transverse instrumental soundscapes on ‘Close Your Eyes’, collide into a dramatic meteor field only to immediately disengage and float along to the slow-winding ‘I’ll Go With You’.

Picking up the urgency with hypnotic melodies and howling guitars on ‘Blue Moth Cloud Shadow’ and the chaotic yet charming title-track ‘News of the Universe’, we safely surrender ourselves to our fate. Leading into the perfectly mellow and minimalist piece, ‘Moon in Reverse’ which has the potential to be a modernist attempt at Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s ‘Perpetuum Mobile’.

“Time is an illusion” is sung bittersweetly by Cleveland on ‘Blue Jay’ ending of our psych-rock adventure with mystery and intrigue. We hope we don’t have to wait too long for our next La Luz trip!

Track list
1. Reaching Up to the Sun
2. Strange World
3. Dandelions
4. Poppies
5. Good Luck With Your Secret
6. Always in Love
7. Close Your Eyes
8. I’ll Go With You
9. Blue Moth Cloud Shadow
10. News of the Universe
11. Moon in Reverse
12. Blue Jay