There is an old joke about jazz: if during a concert you glance back into the hall, you will обязательно see someone with their eyes closed and the look of a person who has just discovered the meaning of life. And you can never guess – whether he is truly moved or has dozed off under the smooth rhythm. Jazz knows how to create exactly this kind of ambiguity: the serious and the playful coexist in it with brazen ease. It is precisely in this zone – between a tear and a smirk, “I suffer” and “oh well” – that Lulu Leloup feels at home.
A Lebanese woman who grew up in Montreal and lives between Beirut and Dubai, she is drawn to the aesthetics of the thirties: a smoky voice, art deco in the details, and sharp self-irony. Her new single “I Guess You Loved Me Until You Didn’t” – the fourth track from the upcoming EP “March” – is released on March 27 and shows: Lulu perfectly understands what story and with what voice she wants to tell it.
The title sounds conversational – like a phrase spoken after a short pause. “I guess you loved me… until you didn’t.” There is no accusation in these words and certainly no drama. In my opinion, it is rather a carefully formulated conclusion that one does not arrive at immediately. The arrangement envelops without pressing. Blues roots are felt in the phrases, but the jazz air does not let the melody sink into heaviness. Lulu glides along the track as if telling a story at the bar counter – unhurriedly, with pauses in the right places, giving the listener time to think through what the singer deliberately leaves unsaid. The voice holds an even timbre throughout the entire range with seeming ease; behind it lie years of work on herself – a mastery that you stop noticing and start listening to.
The video is made with reasonable modesty: Lulu against a background of projections in the spirit of art deco – geometric forms, soft light, a minimum of details. In my opinion, it is a bold decision – to entrust the image entirely to the voice and the story. And it works – the voice and the story do not let you down. About Lulu Leloup they say: “a darkly ironic romantic heroine of jazz” – and “I Guess You Loved Me Until You Didn’t” only strengthens such a status. She serves a broken heart with a squint, like a cocktail with a bitter aperitif: it goes down easily, the aftertaste remains for a long time.
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