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SAlthough years separate the release of cellist Kelsey Lu’s debut album, Bloodfrom his following. Lu has said that the long gap was an artistic rebellion against the music industry concerned with constantly providing a stream of new products – “looking into my knowledge, self-confidence and building a team to support it”, as he says.
Maybe they wanted to chart their own path after a cover – of 10cc’s I’m Not in Love, used in the HBO drama Euphoria – became their biggest hit, or maybe they just didn’t have time to make an album between their many interests. He has earned two films: a Bafta winner Mother Earth and a Netflix documentary feature Daughters. He has collaborated with Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Yves Tumor, Mykki Blanco, Jamie xx, Boys Noize and artist Kevin Beasley and helped the Manchild brand in Neneh Cherry to make a tribute and more. She was photographed by Nan Goldin for a Gucci campaign and held an exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. He also appeared on stage with Debbie Harry, dressed as Kermit the Frog, reprising his iconic Blondie appearance in 1981 on The Muppet Show.
Seemingly alive to the accusations of dilettantism, Kelsey Lu did not present all this as a portmanteau work, but different aspects of the art of art. Whether you buy this or not, So Help Me God shows that their time off from making albums has increased their interest.
It’s more cohesive and less obvious that Lus has more influences than Blood – a great album, but one that was frequently visited by the ghost of Arthur Russell. It’s often fast-paced, summer-afternoon – even the drum’n’bass rhythm of Only the Lonely feels painful, distorted and derailed – but its 50 minutes fly by quickly.
The album’s guest list is as unusual as Lu’s past seven years: Jack Antonoff, jazz legend Kamasi Washington, British singer-songwriter Sampha and former Sonic Youth vocalist Kim Gordon. But instead of being scared or exposed, their appearance is beautiful. Antonoff-supported music Comfort or Running Into Pain Shine through the abstract arrangements, even the songs Antonoff doesn’t get credit for are very powerful. Gordon has been a prominent presence in alt-rock for over 40 years, but here, his appearance serves the music. His guitar emits a distant strum during the opening act of Reaper, a piece of muted sound, in which Washington’s sax and Lu’s vocals sound delightful.
In fact, Reaper is the best example of what this song has to offer. It starts out as a slice of soft pop-soul, before something more dramatic begins. Drums start dropping out of the mix unexpectedly, then reappear, then disappear completely. What at first seems like a circular coda, full of contributions from Washington and Gordon, lasts a long time before the song returns, in a completely different way: slowly, driven by a drum machine, the whole thing is shaken by tremolo effects. It’s amazing and beautiful and word-writing, words you can use for almost anything here, from Cutting off the Spirit’s Head – an arena-ready ballad that sounds triumphant and intoxicating – to Wanda Coleman’s American Sonnet for piano and cello accompaniment that slowly fades into a steady drumbeat and long-winded drumbeat.
It’s an album that wears its weirdness lightly, that moves unexpectedly with a stunningly beautiful smoothness. Just one song, Better Than Thatfeels disorganized and scattered, unusually self-conscious. But elsewhere everything sounds simple. The design is subtle – the music playing on the 852 sounds like a train – and the music lives up to you. Lu’s voice is rich and powerful: the lyrics describe the end of a relationship, often in vague terms – “like weeds in the field we yearn for connection / but the deafening division leaves me unprotected” – but the way she sings them means you always understand the emotional power behind them.
It is the work of a person who has his own vision and his own way of doing things. In a way, it’s a shame to say that the way things are done is to make albums on a regular basis – you leave Help Me God wanting to hear more, but not knowing when. Even if it took Kelsey Lu seven years to follow through, so be it: some things must wait, and Help Me God is one of them.
What Alexis listened to this week
Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Mouse on Mars – Fire Dali
Reggae legend Perry’s free studio recording, posthumously produced by Berlin electronic duo Mouse on Mars: it shouldn’t work, but it does, in a strange and warm way.
