Album Review: Louie Short – Omw 4ev

Toronto / Los Angeles artist Louie Short has giving us an album where “The genre is songs” and where he is the sole creator on this collection of DIY aesthetics. An album about love and the glorious feeling of living in the moment, forever.

Short comments:

“People are drawn to beginnings and endings, whether it be falling in love and breaking up – emerging artists and artists passing away. Things in the middle of life tend to be neglected. I think that this forgotten middle space is exciting and uncharted. It holds a certain poignancy because it doesn’t have the manipulative magnetism of creation and destruction, birth and death, to grab your attention. It just has itself existing.

The lo-fi sounding first track was originally by Louie’s father Michael Short and an artist named BJ Cook in late 70s. It’s a gorgeous piece of dream like keyboards and guitars that falls into a beautiful chorus. ‘Sweeter Than Clover’ has an up beat feel but still with Short’s wonderful lo-fi feel. It’s this DIY charm that the album really shines with. The gorgeous melodies picked out on both guitar and piano. Like the piano led ‘Jit’ built with chunky chord that give it a jaunty feel that sounds so good when the drums join in. ‘Snail’ has a darker mood to the piano with lyrics of longing for better times and days ahead.

The country affair that is ‘Stop Tripping Out’ has some great guitar playing which something that is easily overlooked on this album. The often gentle and simple sounding playing hides the musicianship that Short has put into his album. The brilliantly titled ‘Old Dead Bill’s Song’ that denounces the racist Bill who partied like a legend with Short’s combination of piano and guitar that both work to create overlapping melodies underneath Short’s infectious vocal phrasing. A perfect example of not just the musicianship, but the talent for composition to intertwine the melodies from the instruments.

Standing out on this album in it’s short progressive and spaced out way, ‘If I Wanted To’ is a short track that leads us into final track ‘On my way! 4ev’ which is gorgeously sung track that sums the album up. Short has giving us a delightful collection of songs in his lo-fi style all beautifully written in his charming way with melodies and vocal phrasing.

“It’s about real love that you work for,” Louie says. “We call a lot of songs ‘love’ songs, but often they aren’t really love songs; they’re infatuation songs. They feature love that is obsessively beginning or tragically ending while claiming foreverness, but beginnings and endings don’t last forever. Forever is in the middle of things. In those parts of life and love where you are just participating in a process. So in a world where you’re either coming or going, I wanted to celebrate the part where you are on your way.. forever!”

Check out Short’s track OMV 4ev, below:

Find out more via Short’s Facebook

Purchase the album here