REVIEW: Alice Phoebe Lou Finds Clarity In ‘Oblivion’
REVIEW
REVIEW
☆ BY KORA ELMS FLEMING ☆
Photo by Lexi Hide
THERE’S A SPECIAL CONCOCTION ALICE PHOEBE LOU IS BREWING ON THE STOVETOP - a pinch of simple piano, a splash of intricately crafted lyrics paired with a heavenly voice and a sprinkle of guitar all seeped to perfection in her newest album Oblivion. In this album, Lou seems to be basking in her own glow, asking the deeper questions and finding them in herself.
In Oblivion, there are no frills. The 36-minute record allows Lou to get back to the basics, she explains, “In this industry there’s an emphasis on needing to go bigger, to one-up yourself, but instead I returned to my roots of playing on the street. These songs come from deep inside my subconscious, dreams, the oblivion of sleep, the place where you can access your deepest thoughts, desires, memories, and true feelings without thinking about the way it'll be received.” Spilling those dreams into eleven songs, Lou’s Oblivion feels like waking up in the morning with a bright yellow light peaking through your window, and the body of someone you love, evening out the hard side of the bed.
Self-produced and full of Alice Phoebe Lou's charm, these songs seem to wrap their hands around you, giving you a hug in one track and a push forward in the other. It’s a rambling record, each song flowing into the other. Oblivion gathers songs from Lou’s vault, ones that didn’t make it onto the others, but these tracks are anything but throwaways.
In the record opener “Sailor,” Lou tees up a dreamscape. “I had never given up on your return to my shores/There’s a lot I’ve kept inside and it’s overflowing.” This track holds Oblivion in its hands. It’s the idea of returning to shore with all of the things you’ve learned along the way, letting it out and relinquishing control, even if it’s a little messy. The waves will crash over; how do you navigate it? Lou answers with her grounded, yet shimmery tones and carefully crafted lyrics.
“The Surface” made me so excited for this album. The ease and wispy energy of this song make you go a little further than the surface. It’s all about those words that are on the tip of your tongue, waiting, eager, chomping at the bit. “You stare at me, and I scream/I can’t keep it inside too long.” Lou’s diction perfectly encapsulates those bubbles of thinking and feelings, trying to hide behind a wall until eventually everything comes tumbling out.
In the track “Oblivion,” Lou croons over a simple piano with lyrics that hit every pressure point of falling in love. Even the structure of the song is vulnerable–letting each line feel like a confession reaching into the light. In the music video TikTok It couple Izzy Perez and Emma Fuente hold each other in an embrace as the world blurs around them. “I stop feeling lonely when I look at you/I felt the whole world crumble/am I crumbling too.” “Oblivion” is the soundtrack for those moments with someone where everything else falls away. The music video acts as a highlight reel of the moments you think about over and over as your head hits the pillow. It’s that swirl of love pushing you into its vortex.
In Oblivion, Lou stands in what she does best. The record is beautifully simple, allowing the listener to glide through their own mind with Lou behind them. In a press release Lou explained, “Oblivion leans into the idea of allowing yourself to let things overflow to feel them, work through them, and come out on the other side.” Through listening, there’s a sense of peace and a newfound armor with your heart sitting on top of the chain mail. Oblivion welcomes you to losing yourself completely–in love, in stillness, or on a sleepy Saturday morning with flour on the floor.
