Kelsey Lu – So Help Me God
Kelsey Lu’s sophomore album is a series of beautifully crafted, unfolding journeys that showcases Lu at a new creative peak
Seven years after Blood, Lu describes So Help Me God as “an act of self-possession”, born from a “long period of grief, spiritual questioning, and rebuilding after loss”. Across ten tracks, this bursts into life in vibrant textures and sound, jazz-infused melodies, orchestral arrangements and some of Lu’s most arresting vocal performances to date.
Each song on this album is a new world unto itself. Opener Reaper floats over eight-and-a-half minutes: dreamy, cinematic arrangements seeing Lu lament with spiritual poeticism on longing and pain, as saxophones and piano swell and build. Running To Pain, the album’s most uplifting track builds into emotional crescendos, joyfully blending electronics with acoustics. Meanwhile, Better Than That features South London’s Sampha with piano and vocal interludes, adding new layers of feeling to the track’s introspective back and forth pacing and haunting lyricism.
A cellist, Lu expertly wields instrumentation throughout: steady plucking and strings melding into soundscapes evoking grounding presence and being; vivid breathing and feeling. Delivered together, there’s a cohesion and flow running through this album that feels utterly life affirming. A stunning celebration of the complexities of existence, So Help Me God showcases Lu at a new creative peak.
Listen to: Reaper, Running to Pain