Concert Review: Rae Isla Shows Love Is Divine At Mercury Lounge
It is PRIDE MONTH Y’ALL! With that, LGBTQ’s history and future comes to the forefront throughout June. I mention this because Rae Isla is a proud lesbian, and also seeker and connector to the divine. Too often, the LGBTQ community has been told that spirituality is not apart of its community, but Rae Isla’s Mercury Lounge show was about seeing that divinity is integrated into humanity’s capacity to have a good time.
Rae Isla takes her performance as an opportunity to not just give you a spiritual experience but also an inquisitive one. What I most love about her style is her intent. She WANTS you to look at the fabrics and foundations that construct you as a human being and thus make you divine. For that, she infuses ethereal as a literal music genre; as if an angel clipped its own wings to make her keys, strings, and vocals. If Heaven was divided into a hook and melody then songs like “Just Because” and “Mexico” grabbed both divisions and fused them with dancing rhythms. Yet, Rae Isla’s voice seals them together by lyrically showing our vulnerabilities are what make us cosmic.
By all means, Rae Isla has a “pop voice”; clear, warm, and with a sweet enough range to attract a listener with its simply scaling register. Yet, like Jhene Aiko or Laura Nyro, she matches mass appeal with a sense of soulfulness that feels too raw in pain to be considered a “hymn” but too light in search to be categorized as a simple jam. While most songs are meant to uncover the anxieties of finding our place in love and life, Rae Isla has that with her fellow music/ life partner: Guadalupe Giordano. #relationshipgoals Instead, she adds a universal element that she draws from her aura and body language that you, as well, emulate as you move to her smooth, but fun tracks.
Rae Isla approaches a song as if it is a sepulcher; a holy place holding the body, soul, and memories of a passed person. She closes her eyes and emotes their journey as if to revive them, and it sets up, again, an ethereal ambiance. The divinity becomes electric as she sways in front of her mic like its the Holy Staff of the Pope. The result is a show that proves divinity is not religious as much as raw and tangible in the flirty touch of a loving partner. Thus, for Pride Month, consider learning and loving through Rae Isla’s sound. Click Here.
