Following the online success of “Rises the Moon” from her 2019 sophomore EP Recently, Liana Flores signed to Verve Records and began seriously pursuing music after graduation. Between orange-colored days and long walks, she’s created a debut album produced by Noah Georgeson that dropped officially on June 28. It’s clear that Liana Flores will be to folk as Laufey is to jazz.
“Nightvisions” is expressly a love song, a first for Flores. “[The track] will always be a little jewel full of early love’s intensity, in case I should forget,” Flores said in an interview with SweetyHigh. The music video is campy and fun, with melodramatic sets reminiscent of an old-Hollywood musical.
“Now and Then” is gorgeous. Liana Flores’ melancholic realism shines through on this track, as she somberly sings about the loss of identity that can come with some love, the elusive way relationships can mirror love but whose darker sides can win.
Liana Flores’ style is a fusion of classic folk and Bossa Nova. “I like that both of them can be carried by just a voice and guitar. It’s really important to me in writing and performance,” she said in a recent interview with Line of Best Fit. “Where they differ, I think, is that folk is more of a DIY, grassroots type of genre. It’s more of a people’s genre than Bossa Nova, which was developed very deliberately as a mixture of American jazz and Brazilian music to entertain people in cocktail bars and stuff.”
Throughout the album there are many homages to her influences. Flores leans into higher pitches on Flower of the soul, mirroring Vashti Buyan and Joni Mitchell. “Halfway Heart” simply oozes Astrud Gilberto. It’s followed by a brief interlude, “When the sun…” a quick poem dotted with 50s-style bells and guitar. “Can’t you see that I’m in pain?” Flores asks, “wishing for him, I wish for the rain.” It’s a sweetly eccentric way to lead into the most-streamed song on the album.
“I wish for the rain” is short but packs a punch. Over Grizzly Bear’s Christopher Bear on drums, the lyrics don’t hold back. With “I’m digging my grave after the show” in the very first verse and “I’m a living cliché and you’re kissing her face” in the last verse, the single perfectly demonstrates Flores’ gorgeously pared down, stripped-to-the-bone mourning.
“Butterflies” features Tim Bernardes, fellow Brazilian singer-songwriter and producer and member of O Terno. With fluttering drums and guitar, Flores and Bernardes harmonize as gently as the ‘shimmering wings’ of the butterflies they sing about. In Flower of the soul’s production, Flores was clearly able to connect more to her Brazilian side, and at around the four-minute mark we can hear Flores sing in Portuguese. It’s unbelievably beautiful. Here, in “Butterflies”, her sound feels right at home.
Liana Flores has grown so much since Rises the Moon. Her voice has matured, she’s grown open to collaborations, and has expanded from self-produced acoustic recordings to create a professionally produced LP that can still sound uniquely her. The more interesting question, perhaps – where will Flores go from here?
Liana Flores will go on an international tour this autumn, making a stop in PhilaMOCA on September 27th. Tickets and more information available on XPN’s Concert Calendar.
Listen to Flower of the soul and order it here, or watch the music video for “Nightvisions” below.
Tracklist
Hello Again
Orange-Coloured DAy
Nightvisions
Crystalline
Now and Then
Halfway Hearts
Interlude: “When the sun…”
I Wish for Rain
Cuckoo
Butterflies (feat. Tim Bernardes)
Slowly
