We’ve covered a couple of singles from Florida-born, Baltimore-raised and Kingston, New York-based songwriter Brendan Paul Sullivan, AKA Luah, in recent times. ‘To Relate’ was “a slow unfurling of a song,” as we put it, “Sullivan not only accepts the changeable currents but finds beauty in every small eddy and pull,” while ‘Small Time’, “another downbeat, assured track full of swampy twang and lo-fi textures,” possessed a woozy, reflective vibe, “as though the echoed backing vocals chasing Sullivan’s lyrics are emerging from some other time or plane.” Sullivan has been releasing a steady stream of singles over the months, all slotting into this languid and emotive sound. Like ‘House Plant’ with its languorous melancholy, the baritone vocals delivered through a wistful arrangement and backdrop of field recordings.
Luah’s most recent track ‘Ocean O. (home 4 the holidays)’ follows in this style, enlisting family to further the nostalgic air. The song was recorded in his parents’ living room on his Grandmother’s old piano, and features, as Sullivan puts it “voices of fallen family members collaged in.” What results is something like a memory, or rather several memories superimposed. A way in which to not so much return to the past as view it more vividly, somehow striking in both its intimacy and remove. That place we long for but can never return to.
‘Ocean O. (home 4 the holidays)’ is out now via streaming services.