Lisha, a spawn of Lissie and Kesha? That’s what I thought initially, imagining an in-your-face American singer with all the trappings.
Our Lisha is, of course, something else. To begin with she is Julie Boda, out of Copenhagen.
She’s a new artist, and I mean new, counting less than 100 Spotify listeners according to the Press Release.
‘Forever’ is a DIY-release by Lisha out on September 21st and it is just her second release. It was written as the ‘ultimate love song.’
There’s an urgency about those frantic opening piano notes as if it’s about to run out of time, never mind last forever. Then it gets all ethereal with a Polly Scattergood-like dark, brooding and slightly desperate vocal (including one of her trademark lines, “you make me feel”…) over the sort of weird, introspective music that Mally Harpaz produced on her debut album, ‘Zoom in; zoom out’.
Now you’ve possibly never heard of either of those two, especially if you’re in Scandinavia, but if you care to check them out you’ll hear what I mean. Lisha has found an intriguing combination even if she didn’t know it.
But it isn’t over yet as Lisha veers off into hip-hop land for the remainder of the track, with a short bridge suddenly thrown in straight out of left field that has all the hallmarks of the backing music to The X-Files or The Twilight Zone.
I’ll be honest, I don’t know quite what to make of it. The saying ‘the whole is greater than the sum of the parts’ probably applies here but I’m more attracted to some of those parts, especially the opening section.
Has she over-complicated it? Or is she establishing a new genre mash up that others will yearn to copy. Time will tell.
I don’t know too much about her as I can’t track down soc-med links at the moment. It may be that she’s an experimental R&B artist but it’s the dark, otherworldly bits that do it for me.
We shall see. Her debut album drops later this year – written, recorded and produced by Lisha herself – and “full of stories inspired by a never-ending struggle to find your way in life, when life keeps pushing you over.”
I get knocked down but I get up again, as Chumbawamba used to say.
Find her on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lishaaa_ii
