Love Ladda – Love (Single Review)

It’s rare to review a track with as impressive vocals as this. Love Ladda has pushed her vocals right to the front of this mix and let it stand as the main act in the show- and with good reason. 

Love Ladda’s voice displays rare and serious high skill. The melody is set in a relaxed place in her range, resulting in a really natural delivery. This means from the opening bar, we are treated to a really intimate, smooth, surprisingly breathy set of lyrics. She resists overworking her voice, instead choosing a brilliant recording technique, so we feel she is singing right next to us without any effort at all. This song is meant to feel close and warm, and every element delivers this.

The track itself is a slow, gentle flowing RnB record, sparsely tracked, with a subby, energetic baseline, chucked flanged electric guitar, and classic RnB dominant high hat, knitting all components together. All instrumentation feels naturally placed, not over-processed, reflecting the vocal style and the feel of the song. The chord progression is simple, and there isn’t much melodic development throughout, but this is probably a choice to allow centre space for the lush, layered harmonies and overlapping vocals. In terms of composition, it is relaxed, grounded, authentic, and simply delivered.

Lyrically, this song is an ode/poem to love as a concept. The music and lyrics do not demarcate standard pop music sections, and instead the lyrics flow, swell and dance between the straight 4/4 timing (with that rigid high hat to play off). The listener is being asked to ignore structure and instead sink into the warmth of the female voice. This is very easy to do. However, the lyrics don’t offer much new insight into Love, and they are often written in a passive voice, without a ‘first person’. This makes them a little harder to connect with, and some of the metaphors are overused and don’t grab my interest. Were this written in first person, with more vulnerability of a personal insight into love, I would be HOOKED. Cleo Sol’s ‘Why Don’t You’ might be worth checking out. 

As it is, the lyrics are almost a byproduct of the vocal tone, and there is heaps to enjoy here. Love Ladda has smooth, controlled vocals with a delicate close vibrato. She demonstrates some good vocal range without pushing it, but shows tonnes of technique through her extended vocal runs that would leave many pro’s breathless. The speed of her vocal runs show masterful control.

We need to talk about the reverb too. She uses a mixture, including a very wet long one for the backing vocals that gives huge dimension and space. Others are like a glow, an ambience, that enables us to maintain that close emotional connection with the singing, whilst the ends of phrases disappear in light whisps of reverb. 

Love Ladda has left in more breath noise than expected for this genre, but this again adds to the intimacy of the record, which was a good choice.

This needs to form part of a playlist for introspective moments: a candlelit bath suits the mood perfectly: sink, metaphorically, and physically into a moment, when you can drift away, deep in thought and reflect on your own emotional landscape. Love Ladda’s ‘love’ is the soundtrack for this. Get running the bath!

Love Ladda has much room for creative growth, and I can’t wait to see how she develops her career. Musically, she could start to introduce more midi elements to add texture or sparkle. A track with her and a soft saxophone, almost in duet, would be special. Also, she could modulate the chords and start to ‘move’ the feel into new perspectives and tones, offering fresh sections for the listener to enjoy. 

Lyrically, her phrasing is beautiful, but the content doesn’t match the intimacy of her voice. She could bring a perspective on love by playing with irony, or use more storytelling to progress us to an epiphany or universal truth on love that has never been phrased that way before. A little more grit might be nice. More synergy and play between musical elements and lyrics is a natural development step for her.

SCORE/Good- Excellent. It’s a highly polished, very well-recorded track, with a highly distinguished vocal that puts this track in the excellent category. It needs slightly more creative lyrics to match the intimacy of the other elements; however, to remain firmly in this category. 

[We rank singles, EP’s, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent and Outstanding]

Check more of Love Ladda on her Website