Every so often on this blog, I discover a work that has such startling depth that I am immediately enchanted. The latest example is Jada Di’Larosa’s new album, To Love Is To Perform.
By Graeme Smith
Listening to the album, you get an immediate sense of the thought that has been put into crafting it. The record sounds intentionally classic, pulling on Old Hollywood glamour and aspects of a seedy underground to build a world in which it invites you.
Yet the sound is not dated at all. In a comparable way to Chappell Roan and Lana Del Rey, Di’Larosa takes this aesthetic and applies it to the modern world. Add to it moments of chilled, jazzy ambience not heard since the ‘90s and you’ve got quite a collection.
To Love Is To Perform is a story of contrasts. A glamourous showgirl on New Orleans’ famous Bourbon Street also lives a reclusive life as a songwriter. The authenticity of love is framed as performative. It’s an incredibly interesting concept and one in which it’s a pleasure to dwell.
It opens cinematically with the soft, melancholic strings of Showgirl and we are at once transported. When Di’Larosa’s voice comes in, it’s instantly arresting, soft, expressive, and full of nuance.
Movie Star gives us our first taste of that Morcheeba, Moloko, and Goldfrapp-like ‘90s chill. Looped piano is joined by bright brass before a rumbling bass rhythm kicks in. The style is echoed in the likes of Candy and the brooding Costume.
Elsewhere we get stripped-back elegance, giving plenty of space to the poetic lyrics. Blackbird is a particular highlight in this regard, as is album closer Curtain Call and its title track, To Love Is To Perform. “A golden cage is still a cage,” Di’Larosa laments in one sublime line. She follows it with “when I drink, I have all these ideas… the next day, they melt away.” We’ve all been there.
The world building, honesty, and finely tuned aesthetic of To Love Is To Perform makes it an album of the year contender for me, and I knew it from the first few bars. Di’Larosa has put so much of herself into the album, while finding a style which feels instantly timeless and perfect for the modern world.
If you want to keep up to date with all she’s doing, you can by following her on YouTube, Instagram, Spotify and Soundcloud.
To Love Is To Perform is out now, and you can listen to it below.
