LUCIA – ALBUM REVIEW


Lucia – Samsara (Global Records) 
Lucia - Samsara

Release Date: Out Now

According to the press blurb that accompanies this second album by Lucia, she is ‘arguably Romania’s first Youtube sensation’ which is a definite first in terms of descriptions as far as I’m concerned. ‘Samsara’ gets straight down to business with ‘Afloat’ and that business is elfin vocals atop lace-fine instrumentation with the kind of delicate nature you’d expect from a humming bird or a field mouse. ‘Edge’ continues the spider spun theme but with more drive this time, channelling the energy and angles of Regina Spektor throughout the quirky pop charm of this track. Recent single ‘FRTHR’ is powerful and although it has a sense of the Eurovisions about it, there is still enough sophistication about it to keep you interested. It’s a strong start to an album, that’s for sure.

On ‘Bounds’, Lucia takes a more gentle approach with a rangy, keys lead piece that walks the line between pop ballad and chill-out Trance with precision balance. By complete contrast, ‘The Perfect Life’ is a perky, piano driven pop piece that is full of hope, the scents of Spring and an open road rolling out in front of our heroine. The epic and sweeping glamour of ‘Mother’ is dripping in dramatic elegance as the piano and strings intermingle like children fighting for attention from Lucia’s masterful voice. The beat on ‘Food Chain’ sounds like a child running through puddles before an old-school Ellie Goulding-esque track emerges and then title track ‘Samsara’ soothes and cleanses with an instrumental piece that leads on beautifully from one track to another.

Lucia
In to the closing act of the album we have ‘Catastrophe’, a song so gentle and icy to begin with you could easily be lulled in to a false sense of security but it soon emerges as a more menacing and powerful force that would fit nicely in the darkest-hour moment of the next Marvel film. Closing out with ‘Holy’, we get a very real sense of the scale of what Lucia is capable of; sweeping from impish, folk stylings through to electro-fuelled alt-pop pieces of grandiose stature. Lucia is certainly a force to be reckoned with and if her music can get in to the right ears at the right time then we can expect her to start appearing further afield than Youtube or Bucharest.






Live Dates:

19th May – Roaba De Cultura, Bucharest
25th June – Muzeul de Arta, Cluj-Napoca