Reviews

Lolli Wren
Album: To Build A Sea
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 10
Website: https://lolliwren.com/home

During lockdown I became addicted to reaction videos on YouTube. Somehow watching somebody listening to a song like Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven" for the first time takes you back to your youth when you first discovered these bands. It is fascinating watching someone who has spent their life listening to hip hop or rap when they first encounter Pink Floyd's "Time", or an opera singer who has never listened to anything other than classical music suddenly being faced with a metal singer screaming in harsh vocals. Very often, as well, whilst they are discovering new artists they will introduce you to music that you hadn't previously heard. Two of my favourite bands at the moment, Nightwish and Epica, I discovered via reaction videos.

My favourite types of reactors are the vocal coaches and musicians who understand in depth how the vocal chords function, or how to best play an instrument, and are willing to share that knowledge whilst reacting to a song. I've learnt a lot from them which gives you a far greater appreciation of those songs that you already loved. During the worst of covid, vocal coaches were no longer able to teach students face to face, and so they took to the internet and YouTube as a means of reaching out to potential clients and rapidly realised how much knowledge they could give if they used existing songs as examples. Instantly viewers in the comments made suggestions of further songs they could react to, and before they knew it they were amassing more and more subscribers to their channels.

One of the very best such reactors can be found on her YouTube channel 'The Fairy Voice Mother'. Lolli Wren describes herself as a 'science-based voice specialist' so if you want to learn to sing, or to improve your singing look no further than her. Lolli was born in the UK, but currently lives in Portugal. She obviously still visits the UK though, as she personally hand posted all of the pre-orders of her debut album "To Build A Sea" and they arrived with UK postage stamps.

The first thing you will notice if you watch one of her reaction videos, and I don't think she'll be insulted by my saying this, is that she is not afraid to present as being as mad as a box of frogs. She is fascinated by the vocal skills of others and really enjoys discovering artists who are capable of singing in unusual, surprising or emotional ways. What is so good about her, though, is that having heard a mind-blowingly technical vocal, she will then describe exactly how that singer manages to achieve that and will then go on to demonstrate by repeating it herself. She is an amazing mimic and has a phenomenal range and can imitate a deep bass male voice, the highest notes of an operatic soprano, or the distorted harsh growls of a metal singer.

In reacting to "Superstar" by The Carpenters she sang with a voice that was uncannily like Karen Carpenter's, and I know that many will agree that Karen had one of the best voices ever. The only thing I've seen that she didn't attempt to imitate was the famous D8 whistle tone that Dimash Qudaibergen sang.

Lolli admits that prior to starting 'The Fairy Voice Mother' YouTube channel she was very shy and would not have dreamt of releasing her own album, but the comments she has received during her reactions have increased her confidence to the point that she finally plucked up the courage.

Despite having the vocal skills to sound like almost anyone, Lolli has cultivated her own unique voice, and it is a style that fits the theme of "To Build A Sea". Her voice has a child-like quality about it, belied by some of the complex progressions and rhythms.

She has said that she had no intention of writing songs such as these, but, as soon as she started writing, very personal songs spilled out from her. From that, one can conclude that she may have had quite a traumatic childhood or suffered bouts of depression in her youth. However, she has overcome her past and blossomed into a real fairy godmother, so overall, this is an album with a hugely positive message. The majority of the songs all appear, at least to me, to be a message that she is sending back in time to her younger self, (and also to anyone currently not enjoying life), to say that things do get better.

Lolli wrote all of the lyrics and melodies for this album, apart from the opening track, "Ella" which is based on an inspirational poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, and "Cloud Machines" which was co-written with Carlos Sanches. All vocals are hers, apart from "Cloud Machines" and "Want To Want To" which also features vocals by Carlos Sanches. Carlos Sanches also plays guitar on "In A Wave", "Cloud Machines", "All Mine" and "Under The Tree, Over The Root". Other than that, all other instruments were played by the album producer, Eduardo Moreira, though I know that she herself plays the flute, and is also a piano player.

"Ella" opens with the sentiment 'There is no chance, no destiny, no fate that can circumvent or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.' I feel certain that this was a message that Ella Wheeler Wilcox was attempting to send back to her earlier self, and that it inspired Lolli to do the same.

"I Can't Decide" is very dark and could well be a recollection of how Lolli once felt. She says 'I am too ashamed of myself to care what you think of me.' I'm hopeful that she is well aware now that most people who have encountered her think of her extremely highly.

The album is called "To Build A Sea", so you'd expect that to be the name of the tile track but it isn't quite. "Build A Sea" seems to be sung directly to someone that she once loved and planned on spending a lifetime with, but, as so often happens, things didn't work out in accordance with the dream. 'If I could have held your hand a little tighter, maybe you'd have stayed a while'. 'I would save so many tears I'd build a sea we would sail upon forever'.

I love it when a lyricist coins a new word. Particularly when the meaning of the word is so clear that you can't believe that it has never been used before. In her song "In A Wave", Lolli uses the phrase 'The joysectomy of spring' to describe herself as she once was, but then she says, 'I'll find my own way back' and then replaces the joysectomy line with 'Oh, the joy that I could bring.'

"Cloud Machines" is exquisite. It is mainly sung in Portuguse as a duet with Carlos. Their voices are both so soft and soothing, and harmonise so well together. Lolli's vibrato is stunning. The song asks, where do you come from? and where are you going? and pleads, let me go too. At just three and a half minutes, though, this track is criminally short.

Carlos also joins Lolli on "Want To Want To", but mainly to interject the occasional celebratory 'Vai'. Again, "Want To Want To" has that encouraging message to someone in the depths of despair: 'One foot then the other, look up at the view. Feeling the magic? The magic is you.'

Again "All Mine" is quite bleak: 'The dark crept out to live in me', but it is a recognition that no matter how deep the misery, it is what has shaped her and made her who she is, and that she owns it. It is all hers. 'Watch me break the cycle of a broken home. There's no grudge or burden left, I let them go.'

The final track on the album, "Under The Tree, Over The Root" has no darkness in it. It is just filled with encouraging thoughts: 'You're never alone', 'I am hope and I will never, ever leave', 'I can be a beacon if you only lift your head enough to notice me.' I do not know her history, and whether there was any childhood trauma that inspired this album, but I imagine that if there was, sitting at the foot of a large peaceful tree would be a calm safe place that a child might be drawn to.

A huge risk of being a music reactor that also makes music is that other reactors will now be reacting to your songs, and some of them may be unfavourable. With Lolli, however, there is very little risk. This album is brilliant, and so far, all reactions to any of her songs that I have seen so far have lauded her with praise. Justifiably so.

As she says in "Murphy's Law", which unexpectedly for a singer happens to be spoken, 'And like the Night births the day, at dawn the wren will sing'. Let the Wren sing to you.

Pete Bradley

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