Review Summary: Sumptuous sounding Swedish singer with one hell of a voice.
Sub-genres are like the heads of a Hydra. Once everyone stops using one, two more take its place which is both more specific and even less applicable than its former brand. Whilst these subgenres do allow the artist to target a certain audience and said audience is therefore able to forge a more accurate preconception of what the music sounds like, it almost seems like these artists are shrinking their chances of gaining wider attention by describing their music in such an explicit way. Of course, that’s not to say that these new subgenres are particularly bad in any way.
Self-stylised as Death Gospel, Louise Lemón displays exactly what anyone would assume that genre sounds like: beautifully sung lyrics featuring unifying choruses that are as cleansing as they are heart-breaking atop a comforting, shadowy and soporific soundscape. Smooth and silvery, this Swedish songstress has an incredibly impressive voice which takes the centre stage across the album. Her debut album,
“Purge”, contains the newly-polished and perfectly produced songs of Louise Lemón’s preceding EPs combined together into one coherent and relaxing journey.
The best singers are the ones whose voice echoes a tangible feeling- the ones that make you feel what the singer feels- and Louise Lemón reveals herself to be a part of that roster easily. Personal experiences and passionate feelings bleed into the music contained within the album and are delivered in a liberating manner worthy of the album’s title and overall cathartic theme. She is often isolated amongst mild waves of synthesiser, rolling cymbals or mournful piano and thus relies on her voice to express the mood of the songs. She illustrates her ability to increase intensity with her voice during “Shipwreck” which begins sombrely but her voice becomes gradually more desperate and helpless while she expresses confidence and even defiance, supported by a faster tempo, during “Let Me In”. Likewise, her lyrics describe heartache and sorrow but are not submerged in metaphors that often dilute the general message. Rather, Louise confronts these situations directly and mimics the feelings in her singing in every song, enhancing this tangibility further.
As impressively expressive as Louise Lemón is alone,
“Purge” owes part of its success to the superb production work poured into it courtesy of Randall Dunn. With a resume containing the likes of Sunn O))), Anna Von Hausswolff and Myrkur, Dunn injects a ghostly pallor into Louise Lemón’s comforting music. Every song sounds like it’s shrouded in a thin mist thick enough to obscure Louise’s voice to give it that dark edge, but thin enough for her singing to penetrate it cleanly. The instrumentation behind the luxurious singing in “Only Meet at Night” is minimal- only the occasional scrape of guitar and chords on keyboards materialise- which allows Dunn to create a tense, brooding and vulnerable atmosphere as if the music is performed in the dead of night. Speaking of locations,
“Purge” was tracked in a supposedly haunted cabin. This seclusion and unease resonate within the music, particularly the beautifully constructed “178” where the atmospheric soundscape never rushes and seamlessly drifts between the song’s reserved and captivating moments.
It’s taken Louise Lemón the best part of 10 years to transcend from an underground blues artist to the death-gospel star she is today. Sinisterly seductive, glamorously melancholic and tragically romantic; Louise Lemón has crafted music that has the power to appease many audiences ranging from Chelsea Wolfe to Lana Del Rey. Right now, her music is firmly centralised around her achingly stunning voice and will continue to do so, but in time, when she develops her instrumental background, she could become something truly spectacular.
