We feel lucky to have witnessed Louis the Child’s Here For Now album tour in December 2019 in Dallas Texas. We traveled because they where one of four headliners at Lights All Night. Here For Now, as an album and tour, have been ongoing. The first Here For Now show was on November 2, last year, but the album was recently released last month: June 26th.
For longtime fans of Louis the Child, it’s an easy guess that familiar voices such as Elohim and Wafia would make appearances right? Wrong.
This time we have Freddy and Robby from Louis the Child singing on Don’t Mind, La La La, and We are Here For Now. Despite their appearance they are not alone, there are big names like Vera Blue, Foster the People, and Chelsea Cutler.
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The Music and What We Thought:
The first thing about Louis the Child is that they blur the lines between mainstream music and underground. There’s a reason they have over 7,000,000 monthly Spotify listeners. Their music appeals to multiple audiences and they have fantastic marketing.
If you predicted that their debut album would sound mainstream then we are happy to tell you no. They are not sellouts, they are experimental artists that know how to work with all styles of music. They appeal to multiple audiences because they are fans of all genres. The music Freddy and Robby make under the Louis the Child name is their opportunity to share their inspirations, and all the music they love.
Some people have tried to identify Louis the Child as future bass, or future house, but we have looked past genre definitions. The ultimate goal for music producers is to establish a cohesive sound. We hear that sound immediately in the first minute of their album. Listen to the transition between Scooter’s Debut and Big Love.
Song analysis:
La La La (Everything’s Okay) –
We have to talk about this song first. It’s on repeat the most, it’s the most different, it’s so unique. This song isn’t the first time Louis the child have incorporated children in their music. They have an EP named Kids at Play.
This is the first time they have used recording of themselves as children on their music. In the first minute you can hear Robby’s mom talking to him about his new baby brother.
We love how Freddy and Robby did the lyrical work on the chorus. They produced La La La to be one of the the happiest songs on the album. We hear birds chirping throughout which echo feelings of new mornings. New days where “Everything’s okay.”
Fade Away:
We really wanted to talk about the last song on the album because it shows the underground vibe that we are talking about. Fade Away show much they are willing to experiment and how much they love all music. They add layer by layer of new instrumentation before subtracting it all in favor of a glorious piano outro.
Bittersweet:
Admittedly not our favorite song on the album, but worthy of discussion for a couple of reasons. Bittersweet shows them blurring the lines between mainstream and experimental music. We notice familiar pop vocals that you might hear on the radio, vocals that we did not like at first but found stuck in our heads. Vocals that we wanted to hate but grew on us!
Not to mention the instrumentation is dark and reminiscent of low light hip hop shows. Experimental instrumentation x radio vocals? That’s so Louis the Child.
We All Have Dreams:
We made room on our list to talk about this song because of its emotional power. One of our favorite things about music is its ability to make us feel. There are thousands of songs that make us feel fantastic when everything else feels terrible. We All Have Dreams is one of those tracks.
We could easily write about all the lyrics in We All Have Dreams, and how they individually makes us smile. There are many, but this pre-chorus says enough.
“Everybody livin’ out the age old story///Hurt and then they love and then they fight///Everybody livin’ out the age old story///No one thinks they’re doin’ it right.”
What is Here For Now?
When we saw Louis the Child last December they spoke in great detail about the project. Robby stopped the music, and spoke for nearly 2 minutes about living life to the fullest. Maybe we had heard this speech before, in different forms, but it was worth repeating.
Yes it is very important to plan for the future and have goals, but many people get lost in the future. They forget to slow down and focus on the small moments. Above & Beyond have taught us that life is made of small moments. Louis the Child aim to teach their fans the same. The key sentence from Robby’s speech, “Any moment with someone could be the last.”
Freddy and Robby target a large audience with their music. It’s a good thing that a lot of people enjoy their sound. As Louis the Child they blur the lines between mainstream and underground. We were fearful that their album would feel more mainstream, but it doesn’t. Their debut album successfully celebrates all the music that they love. Hype, emotional, rap, pop, lyrical, instrumental, you name it they produced it.
Please press play on their album and smile with us. Then tell us on Facebook or Twitter if you are geeking out as much as we are.
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