Music Review: Luca Chesney – ‘Mother Electric’ Offers Haunting Electro-Pop

Luca Chesney just released her LP, entitled Mother Electric. Highly anticipated since the release of the first single entitled “Revolver,” which was followed up by an eclectic cover of the ’80s new wave classic by Alphaville “Forever Young,” the album features Chesney’s magnetic electro-pop sound.

The daughter of Christian missionaries, Chesney had an unusual upbringing, spending most of her childhood in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. After expanding her cultural horizons by traveling the world, she settled down in NYC to launch her music career. Last year saw the release of her eponymous EP, beautifully capturing her interest in exploring the self, and documenting her personal experiences through her music.

In the time between the two releases, Chesney underwent a personal resurrection, manifesting itself in both spiritual and physical transformations. This metamorphosis led to Chesney shaving her hair off in order to physically represent the spiritual journey she experienced.

Mother Electric is an aural documentation of her journey, documented track by track. The album circles around themes of the human experience, including the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Every song is a chapter in Chesney’s journey. The listener is given the opportunity to enter her intimate, proximate world, in an album that almost reads like a personal monologue. The themes and lyrics are universally applicable and can be interpreted in various ways to fit in with the listener’s personal life.

The highlight of the album is Chesney’s unique, dreamy voice, a voice infusing her lyrics with the spark of life. Track highlights include “Forever Young,” “Gold in My Hands (feat. Latasha),” “Silentium,” and “Break My Heart.”

“Gold in My Hands” offers an electro-pop tune flavored with tinges of hip-hop essence. Chesney’s wistful colored tones complement Latasha’s edgy, rapping voice. My favorite tune on the album is “Break My Heart,” with its haunting moodiness. Chesney’s voice assumes subtle, graceful timbres imbuing the tune with tragic blushes of pigmentation.

With Mother Electric, Luca Chesney stages impressive artful sequences of marvelously emergent electro-pop.

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