“[A] sense of wanting is made palpable across the song, both in terms of the simmering, taut urgency of the sound and the longing loaded into Kruger’s vocals, and the result is equal parts uneasy and mournful. The sad discomfort of revealing a deep part of oneself without knowing if anyone is even looking.” That’s how we described ‘Damp‘, a single from Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys‘ new album Pale Bloom which embodied the tone of the record. One equal parts hesitant and yearning yet not without its own sense of rawness, unfurling slowly to reveal its tender heart. Such a botanical image is fitting for an album built around these ideas, the Kruger the personification of the titular pale bloom. Struggling to grow within hostile conditions. Her roots grasping blindly for sustenance, leaves reaching towards some potential light.
Only, unlike our floral counterparts, such a process does not come naturally to us. “There is something moving in watching somebody at the beginning stages of knowledge—exploratory, clumsy, curious, searching,” as Kruger explain. “It’s hard to imagine a flower or a tree blooming incorrectly. If they are not given what they need—light, water, nutrients, air—they will stretch to find it. And if they do, they will bloom. Plants don’t need to be taught how to grow. They just know. I’m not sure it’s the same with humans.” Hence the conflicted moods of Pale Bloom. The uncertainty, the dreamlike drift, the visceral heft, the creeping dread of things falling apart.
With the album out now via Unique Records, Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys have shared opener ‘Bloom’ as a new single. The perfect introduction to the album’s ethereal allure, not to mention the themes of tentative transformation which underpin it. “My garden is anaemic / the birds are barely ghosts,” as Kruger sings in one verse, “can roots as sure as feelings / grow brave enough to roam.” For all of the otherworldly tones, it is this earthiness which stands out the most. Any act of liberation requires dirt under the fingernails, and Lucy Kruger is more than prepared to get her hands in the mud.
Watch the video below, directed by Lena Nerinckx, with cinematography and lighting by Aljoša Dakić and art direction and styling by Lenny-Dee Nielson:
Pale Bloom is out now via Unique Records and you can get it from the Lucy Kruger & The Boys Bandcamp page.
Photo by Francis Broek