Spring is a time of new beginnings; shedding unwanted layers as the grey skies clear to blue, and making space for what’s to come. Lorely Rodriguez, better known as the alternative, electro-pop songwriter, Empress Of, has created a record that so effortlessly represents this idea of letting go and stepping into a new stride. It seems remarkably coincidental that the release date of this album falls three days after the start of spring.
For Your Consideration, is a perfectly packaged depiction of heartbreak and the aftermath of a breakup.
The opening, titular track begins with Rodriguez painting a picture of her submissive role in a relationship,—“You wrote the script, your words, not mine.” While her tone is tender, carrying a certain level of melancholy, the lyrics are laid over a track of percussive breaths and reverberated moans, conveying that her voice is now the only one that matters, subverting the power of pain.
While the first half of the album speaks to the despair of a failing relationship: needing space, jealousy, and lack of voice; the second half represents the rage of a woman who is regaining her sureness of self. In “Feminine,” she talks about wanting a man who she can control, and in “Cura,” she states her need for a distraction, “but only for the night.”
Her use of bilingualism, even sometimes flip-flopping between Spanish and English within the same verse, gives her lyrics a stream-of-consciousness feel. Tied together with sparse yet teetering baselines, arpeggiated synths, and addictive, repetitive vocal hooks throughout, there is a restlessness to her work, which can be expected of one who is digesting a big change. Overall, this record is incredibly danceable, yet deeply pensive and introspective. It seems to uncover itself more with each listen and sits in the position of a perfect late-night album, whether during a party full of friends or alone in one’s room looking out the window longingly.
