L'Rain (album)

Last updated

L'Rain
L'Rain album cover.jpg
Studio album by
L'Rain
ReleasedSeptember 15, 2017
Genre Experimental
Label Astro Nautico
Producer
L'Rain chronology
L'Rain
(2017)		 Fatigue
(2021)

L'Rain is the debut studio album by experimental musician Taja Cheek, who performs as L'Rain. [1] [2] The album was released in 2017 by New York City-based label Astro Nautico [3] [4] and included in best-of-year lists by publications including Pitchfork [5] and Bandcamp Daily . [6] The album cover is an image of Cheek's forearm, which is tattooed "L'Rain"; she chose the name after her mother, Lorraine, died during the making of the record. [2]

Contents

L'Rain features Andrew Lappin on guitars, Alex Goldberg on drums and percussion, Jeremy Powell on saxophone, and TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone on backing vocals. [7] Cheek composed and performs vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, guitar, bass, samples, and percussion on the album, [8] which she co-produced with Lappin. [7]

Musical style

L'Rain has been recognized as an experimental album drawing on many traditions and genres; [5] [1] reviewers have identified the work's style and influences as including free jazz, ambient, noise music, and disco; [3] R&B, post-punk, and avant-garde rock; [1] shoegaze, psychedelic, hip hop, and outsider music; [7] jazz, electronic music, and dream pop; [8] soul and folk; [6] and more.

L'Rain often layers and loops her vocals, and her work frequently features samples from her collection of hundreds of field recordings, some pitch-shifted or otherwise manipulated beyond recognition. [2] She has spoken in interviews about her work's tendency to evade [2] or reject [1] categorization, and in an interview following the debut's release said, "I would hope that people would find elements of gospel, 90s r&b, and different genres of 'experimental music' (for lack of a better term) in my music, but I generally try to remain as illegible as possible. There is power in remaining indiscernible. I like to exist in a liminal space." [9]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Pitchfork 6.8/10 [3]

Jay Balfour for Pitchfork assessed L'Rain with general positivity, calling it "a beautiful, untidy conduit of [Cheek's] grieving." [3]

Year-end lists

PublicationListRank
Pitchfork The 20 Best Experimental Albums of 2017#17 [5]
Bandcamp Daily The Best Albums of 2017#10 [6]

Track listing

All songs by L'Rain.

No.TitleLength
1."Heavy (But Not in Wait)"4:53
2."Stay, Go (Go, Stay)"4:42
3."Bat"2:22
4."Alive and a Wake"2:28
5.Untitled0:36
6."A Toes (Shelf Inside Your Head)"3:03
7."Go, Stay (Stay, Go)"1:00
8."July 14th, 2015"0:23
9."Which Fork / I'll Be"6:58

Personnel

Adapted from the record's Bandcamp page. [10]

L'Rain

Additional musicians

Technical

Artwork and design

Related Research Articles

Dream pop is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such as reverb, echo, tremolo, and chorus. It often overlaps with the related genre of shoegaze, and the two genre terms have at times been used interchangeably.

<i>Return to Cookie Mountain</i> 2006 studio album by TV on the Radio

Return to Cookie Mountain is the second studio album by American rock band TV on the Radio. It was released July 6, 2006, worldwide by 4AD, and issued in the U.S. and Canada on September 12, 2006, by Interscope Records and Touch and Go Records. The North American release features three bonus tracks, two of which are B-sides from the single "Wolf Like Me"; the other is a remix of "Hours" by El-P. Videos were made for the singles "Wolf Like Me" and "Province".

<i>Pink</i> (Boris album) 2005 studio album by Boris

Pink is the tenth album by Japanese experimental music band Boris. It was originally released in 2005 through Diwphalanx Records in Japan and subsequently reissued in 2006 by American label Southern Lord Records.

<i>Future Perfect</i> (Autolux album) Album by Autolux

Future Perfect is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Autolux. It was released on October 26, 2004 by DMZ and RED Ink Records. The album was produced by musician and DMZ co-founder T Bone Burnett, and was primarily recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles.

<i>Summer of Fear</i> (album) 2009 studio album by Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson

Summer of Fear is the second studio album by American musician Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. It was released on October 20, 2009 through Saddle Creek Records. Recording sessions took place at Atlantic Sound Studios and Stay Gold Studio in Brooklyn, New York. Production was handled by Kyp Malone and Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson himself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Young Magic</span> American electronica band

Young Magic is an American electronic music group from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2010. The project consists of multi-instrumentalists and producers Melati Malay and Isaac Emmanuel.

Algiers is an American-English post-punk band from Atlanta, Georgia, United States, formed in 2012. The band consists of multi-instrumentalists Franklin James Fisher, Ryan Mahan, Lee Tesche, and Matt Tong. Algiers pulls from a divergent number of musical influences; the most notable of which being post-punk, hip-hop, Southern Gothic literature, and the concept of the Other. Their sound has been described as dystopian soul due to its somber mood, afrofolk inspired vocal approach, and heavy emphasis on atonal textures.

<i>The Cool Death of Island Raiders</i> 2006 studio album by The Ohsees

The Cool Death of Island Raiders is the fifth studio album by the American garage rock band Osees, released on March 7, 2006, on Narnack Records. Co-produced by TV on the Radio members Dave Sitek and Kyp Malone, the album was released under the names, The Ohsees and The Oh Sees, and is the first studio album to feature backing vocalist and future keyboardist Brigid Dawson.

<i>Infinite Worlds</i> (album) 2017 studio album by Vagabon

Infinite Worlds is the debut studio album by Cameroon-born musician Laetitia Tamko, under the stage name Vagabon. Released in February 2017, it would be her last record under the Father/Daughter Records banner, as her self-titled follow-up would be released through Nonesuch Records in 2019.

<i>Room Inside the World</i> 2018 studio album by Ought

Room Inside the World is the third and final studio album by Canadian art punk band, Ought. The album was released on February 16, 2018, through Merge Records.

<i>Face Stabber</i> 2019 studio album by Oh Sees

Face Stabber is the twenty-second studio album by American garage rock band Oh Sees, released on August 16, 2019 on Castle Face Records. The album expands on the progressive rock sound that the band explored on their two previous releases Orc and Smote Reverser.

<i>AOKOHIO</i> 2019 studio album by Why?

AOKOHIO is the sixth studio album by American band Why?. It was released by Joyful Noise Recordings on August 9, 2019. It was released with an accompanying visual album.

<i>Voyage-19</i> 2020 EP by Bilal and HighBreedMusic

VOYAGE-19 is an EP by the American singer-songwriter Bilal, in collaboration with HighBreedMusic, a music studio and production company in Brooklyn, New York. It was released digitally on September 6, 2020, through the music publishing platform Bandcamp and is his first EP, as well as his first album-type release since 2015's In Another Life.

<i>Tru</i> (Ovlov album) 2018 studio album by Ovlov

Tru is the second studio album by American band Ovlov, released on July 20, 2018, via Exploding in Sound Records. After releasing their first studio album, Am (2013), the band had temporary break-ups, but eventually re-emerged. Tru was recorded around late 2016 and early 2017, and two singles were premiered before its official release. The album received "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator Metacritic.

<i>Mazy Fly</i> 2019 studio album by Spellling

Mazy Fly is the second studio album by American experimental pop musician Spellling, released in February 2019. It is her debut recording with Sacred Bones Records, making her labelmates with artists like Jenny Hval and Zola Jesus.

<i>Fatigue</i> (album) 2021 studio album by LRain

Fatigue is the second record by Brooklyn-based experimental musician Taja Cheek, under the moniker of L'Rain. It is her first recording with record label Mexican Summer. Fatigue builds on Cheek's experimental compositional approach, drawing from an eclectic collection of genres and employing field recording elements. Instrumentally, it has help from twenty collaborators, who lend the record clavinet, saxophone, and more.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L'Rain</span> American singer and songwriter

Taja Cheek, known professionally as L'Rain, is an American experimentalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and curator known primarily as the lead vocalist and songwriter of her eponymous band. L'Rain has been recognized for experimental music that draws on a vast number of traditions and genres in a practice and aesthetic Cheek calls "approaching songness".

<i>The Asymptotical World</i> 2021 EP by Yves Tumor

The Asymptotical World EP is an EP by experimental musician Yves Tumor, released by Warp on July 15, 2021. It follows on the heels of their acclaimed 2020 album Heaven to a Tortured Mind.

<i>W</i> (Boris album) 2022 studio album by Boris

W is the twenty-seventh studio album by Japanese experimental band Boris, released 21 January 2022 on the Sacred Bones label.

<i>I Killed Your Dog</i> 2023 studio album by LRain

I Killed Your Dog is the third studio album by Brooklyn-based experimental musician L'Rain. It was released on October 13, 2023, through Mexican Summer.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Fraden, Angel E. (February 26, 2018). "Meet L'Rain, the Mystic Multi-Instrumentalist and Vocalist Whose Intimate Music Will Mesmerize You". Teen Vogue. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Pareles, Jon (June 24, 2021). "L'Rain's Songs Hold Ghosts, Demons and Healing". The New York Times. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Balfour, Jay (September 28, 2017). "L'Rain: L'Rain". Pitchfork. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  4. ↑ Kuhn, Bennett. "Labeled: Astro Nautico". Impose Magazine. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 Geffen, Sasha (December 15, 2017). "The 20 Best Experimental Albums of 2017". Pitchfork. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 "The Best Albums of 2017: #20 – 1". Bandcamp Daily. December 15, 2017. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 Schube, Will (September 8, 2017). "L'Rain's Debut Album Is A Rollercoaster Ride of Soul, Shoegaze, and Dance". Bandcamp. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  8. 1 2 Berlatsky, Noah (September 4, 2017). "Music on the Horizon". Splice Today. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  9. ↑ Bourgeois, Jasmine (November 2018). "In Conversation with L'Rain". Tom Tom Magazine. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  10. ↑ "L'Rain (Deluxe Edition)". Bandcamp . Retrieved July 9, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.