With more style than a cover of Vogue and as a haunting indie callback to that 2010s sweet spot when Warpaint, Poliça, Wolf Alice, Lorde, and London Grammar sat deep in the cultural bloodstream, LORI USAI’s standout single, Wet Denim, hypnotises you into its ethereal oscillations of melancholia. There’s a lived-in emotional intelligence to the way she handles atmosphere, making the track feel less like a throwback and more like a continuation of everything that made that era hit so hard in the first place. Her writing circles what remains when self-deception falls away, when longing, loneliness and obsession are left exposed without anything neat to hide behind.
Even when playing with elements of discordance, the release stays committed to catharsis, keeping the production euphorically lush through its torrid spells of riled-up feeling. The luminous synths and quasi-cosmic indie pop aesthetics temper the romanticism of LORI USAI, who feels fully attuned to the torture of letting emotions run deeper than surface level. There’s heartbreak, but also shame, hope, anger, and that strange state of breaking apart while still feeling feverishly alive.
Wet Denim is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.
Review by Amelia Vandergast
