Luna Li's 'When a Thought Grows Wings' Is a Story of Love Lost and Purpose Found
Korean-Canadian artist Luna Li has finally unveiled her new album When a Thought Grows Wings. Two years after Li's last full-length Duality, When a Thought Grows Wings captures the multi-instrumentalist at her most transformative. Co-created with producers Monsune and Andrew Lappin, Li documents and explores personal upheavals in her life, including her recent split with her partner of eight years and moving away from her hometown of Toronto to pursue her career in LA. These emotionally charged experiences are counterbalanced with explorations into baroque-pop, folk, and lounge rock, with Li's signature harp at her side guiding listeners through a tale of love lost and purpose found.
Li spoke about the album's inspiration in a statement, "When a Thought Grows Wings is about taking life into your own hands; allowing little thoughts and desires to bloom into real and tangible action. I was going through a period of big transitions in my life at the time of making this album, and in the process, I ended up connecting more deeply than ever with music, as well as with the incredible community of people around me."
On the album opener, "Confusion Song," Li delivers a post-breakup denial tune. She croons to the masses, "I thought we were taking space / Held my heart in a suspended place / Never said that I missed your face/ Can love regenerate?" subconsciously fighting the reality that her relationship has ended. Her tone and lyrics are anything but combative, angry, or bitter, but rather curious, tender, and kind as she asks in the chorus, again and again, "How do you see it?"
"Golden Hour," a personal favorite on the album, is a spellbinding display of Li's poetry. Fueled with ethereal soundscapes and jazzy hooks, it's a prime example of her impeccable worldbuilding and craftsmanship. Soft and sensual, she sweetly yet urgently sings, "When I met you in the meadow / The sky lamented for us both." Amid the psychedelic-tinged instrumentals, she yearns and wishes for more love on the lilting chorus, slowing descending into the warmth of this almost transcendent experience.
Other standout tracks throughout the album showcase Li's trademark elasticity as a musician, propping up her skills as a singer-songwriter, guitarist, harpist, and flutist. Her flute solo on the glamorous, '70s-tinged "Minnie Says (Would You Be My)" is a transcending and delicate creation with a fierce boldness that is difficult to ignore. At the same time, "Fear Is an Illusion!" overflows with whimsy and a dreamy woodwind ensemble reminiscent of the soundtrack of a Disney fairytale. While Li's voice flutters and lilts on certain tracks, it brassily stretches on others, like "I Imagine," where she compares the feeling of a crush with the feeling of becoming obsessed with a piece of music.
The album's finale "Bon Voyage" is, simply put, perfect. Li flexes the full range of her compositional talents, layering surging string swells, winsome harp ripples, and woodwinds into a soaring orchestra, creating an experience as intricate as a butterfly's wings. Lyrically, she speaks of death, control, and nothingness, but also about thinking, daydreaming, folding thoughts into themselves, and wandering in the mind. Its most crucial lines, "Think the thoughts you've sealed / Secrets you won't reveal / Just tell me that it's real," and "And your face, like the dimmest light/ Makes something from the nothing that is mine" is framed with sweeping harp, string and woodwind arrangements, psychedelic guitars, and driving drums, offering the listener the opportunity to question alongside her, look into the depths of themselves, and find their own "sweet conclusion," without fear.
Listen to When A Thought Grows Wings below:
