Album Review: Loren Cole Is For The Sake of Being Honest
For Loren Cole, honesty is the most important virtue. It is the what assures that all other virtues, like love, are genuine enough to be powerful and empowering. Yet, for the 22 year old soul, the only way to achieve honesty is through self-work, something she feels not enough music promotes. Thus, her new album, For The Sake of Being Honest, is a sonic mirror to her soul.
Not to get religious, but there is a verse in the Bible, that I kept on thinking of, as I heard the delicacy of Cole’s voice and verses: “Heal Yourselves!” It is a two-phrase statement is both powerful and perplexing because, if I am sick, I can’t heal myself! Yet, self-loathing and an inability to accept the sufferings of life as common backs this statement. No material setback excuses a spiritual one; however hard that may seem. From “Often” to “Hanging On,” Loren is looking at how her heart clutches to pain and love, and asks herself why such grasps happen at certain times.
From Phoebe Bridgers to Julien Baker, Loren Cole rises in a time when A LOT of women are opening about their humanity. Thus, they are, inadvertently, singing to womanhood by singing to humanity, and showing that both are not distinguishable terms from the other; they are the same! Hence, Cole backs her thoughtful lyrics with guitar melodies that play folk music as if it were pop. While folk music is always intricate and intimate in how it builds characters’ worlds, pop goes for the sugared, bombastic sounds and simple verses. Loren transfers that vivacious simplicity through her vast arrangements; making you feel like the complications of being a young woman, in this world, is simple when you are just being yourself and learning that is the only “weight” you should carry.
“Follow,”“Play Me A Song,” and “What Are We Doing Here,” feel like classic Jewel or Joni Mitchell tracks. You simply want to grab a vinyl or cassette tape, and replay every lightly soaring note that Cole breathes. She sings her songs as if she is looking at her life on the passenger seat of a moving train; instead of landscapes, she sees memories of her behaviors.Yet, like the fierce soul she is, this songstress is not backing down from her weaknesses or her strengths. For her, both should be handled with honesty. For More Information On Loren Cole And To Buy For The Sake of Being Honest On August 24 Click Here.
