Eighties-inspired, funky soul pop with a jazzy bent; if Paula Abdul and Quincy Jones got together to produce a nascent, ‘Holiday-era’ Madonna it might sound something like ‘Lockdown Love’ by Romania’s River Mara. Fun, flashy, with an immensely danceable groove and deliciously catchy hook, it’s evocative of big hair, sequins, and glitter-balls, a time of velvet-roped night-clubs (remember those?), Ray-Ban Wayfarers, and ecologically dangerous amounts of hairspray.
A classically-trained pianist and composer, Mara is currently studying classical composition at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama, but that’s still left her time to garner a collective 350 Million YouTube views for her songs ‘Sweet Dreams’ and ‘Lie To Me’ for Andra, one of Romania’s biggest singing stars. On the basis of ‘Lockdown Love’, with its insane little ear-worm chorus and effervescent upbeat enjoyment , it’s really not hard to see why.
Check out River Mara’s website here.
Review by Alex Holmes