In high school I used to slip out my bedroom window onto my roof to sun on warm days until the heat would bake my brain into a comatose, sweaty drowse. The psychedelic tones of the ’60s were almost always my brain bake music of choice. Invoking that sunshine coma sensation, Bordeaux-based Alba Lua’s phosphorescent folk rock nudged my thoughts back to those days out on the roof.
Alba Lua’s “Sell Your Soul – You’ll Be Free” is the gorgeous track that turned me onto them. It features a circular, energetic guitar line and airy, feminine vocals that float under the melodic current of the verse until the chorus hits right after the minute mark to an onrush of rhythmic change-up via drums and tambourine. The song stops, changes tempo, starts back up, slows down, then back up again throughout the entire song until it finally tires and dies down at the end, having kept us heavily absorbed for the duration of the ride.
The other six songs are just as sweet of a ride that I hope you’ll take for a spin. Dipping into surf psychedelia and trippy ’60s vibes, each track is consistently engaging and wholly saccharine. I have no doubt that after listening, Alba Lua just might be the soundtrack to your spring. Listen to “Sell Your Soul – You’ll Be Free” here, then swing by their Soundcloud page to take in the rest. Their full-length, Inner Season, is due out soon.