Album Review: Lauv - How I’m Feeling

If you were to throw relatable emo lyrics, pop melodies and thumping hip hop basslines into a blender you’d end up with the sweet taste of LA pop singer Lauv’s debut album How I’m Feeling.

There is so much to digest in this 21-track release that covers so much emotive ground. Loneliness is a common denominator, referenced in the title of three tracks and even more so lyrically throughout (“Killing my lonely nights with strangers”), but Lauv also navigates heartache, love, family and the general ups and downs of modern Millennial life.

It’s a long album, and as each song contains the same mix of sweet pop melodies and hard-hitting emotional lyrics spun with danceable hip hop-styled beats, it risks becoming monotonous. Yet, features from the likes of BTS and Troye Sivan help break up its length - none more so than Alessia Cara in Canada. Her soulful vocals provide a gut-wrenching tone to the fantasy daydream track.

Whether it's the soft guitar plucks in Sims, the heavy bass of Lonely Eyes or the piano ballad that drives Changes, How I'm Feeling lays everything out on the table: the good, bad and the ugly. It’s emo-pop at its most vulnerable, where if you don't dance you’ll cry.