On 5th August, Lauv released his new 13-track album All 4 Nothing. Lauv’s powerful vocals and catchy choruses work cultivating against the heart-wrenching lyrics of the album, showing his personal growth with love, life, mental health and drugs.
The album starts with ‘26’, a song that recognises Lauv’s age and the process of growing older, but not necessarily being happy. The short song pushes forward an overarching theme of the album – the pains of growing older. Lauv’s rich synthetic electropop voice opens the album in a heart-breaking way, creating an anticipation of what is next to come.
‘Stranger’ continues the sad tone, talking about not being a stranger to the dark and falling apart; Lauv’s higher pitch vocals come out here, making for a moving song with an expected catchy chorus.
I have loved ‘Kids Are Born Stars’ since its release in June, and hearing it amongst the other songs, made me love it even more. Its fun and catchy chorus tells the uncertainty of young love whilst showing the optimism of knowing that one day you’re going to make it with or without love. Compared to the many sad slower songs of this album, ‘Kids Are Born Stars’ provides an uplifting tune for the album – the song to put on full blast and dance around your bedroom.
One of my favourites off the album has to be ‘Molly in Mexico’, as while it seems to be referring to the drug Molly and not a person as I first thought, the beat and the memorable chorus makes Lauv’s voice beautifully prominent and this song is guaranteed to be stuck in your head after a few listens.
However, ‘All 4 Nothing (I’m So in Love)’, the album title track, has to be my ultimate favourite song from the whole album. Lauv’s distinct melt-in-your-ears voice works characteristically with the rhythm of the song flowing to a catchy beat, creating the picture of love.
“Thank God we never stayed together”: ‘Stay Together’ is Lauv’s way of being thankful a relationship ended, knowing it wasn’t meant to work. Similarly, ‘Better Than This’ is a song about love but knowing you’re not perfect and feeling like you’ve let someone down. Both songs show Lauv’s personal growth to a synthetic beat and lyrics.
Another one of my favourites, ‘Hey Ari’ is a note from Lauv to himself. It shows Lauv’s deepest feelings and his personal struggles in recent year: “I see through the pills you take / I see through the face you make / Hey Ari, are you happy?”The slow pace and strong emphasis on “Hey Ari, are you really happy?” creates a hard-hitting song that slows the album down and makes us understand Lauv in a new way.
Next, ‘Bad Trip’ repeats the lyrics of ‘Don’t let me die’, emphasising the singer’s dark feelings that creates a haunting breakdown song that is written in a respectfully sad way. This is also similar in ‘I (Don’t) Have a Problem’ which has powerful lyrics about hurt.
To end the album, Lauv leaves us on a positive note with ‘First Grade’, a slow and beautiful love song about finding love and wanting to show them that they are beautiful the way they are: “who you are is a star / Who you are is beautiful / Who you are to me”, whilst also believing in yourself too.
Through these 13 songs, Lauv takes us on a journey of growth, struggle and survival, bringing us new lyrics and experimenting with electronic sound, showing that he is not only talented, but that he can use his struggles to create beautiful songs that hopefully resonate to a wide audience to show: we are not alone.
Words by Cara Scott
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