Louis Baker’s new album, Love Levitates, is a cathartic dive into a soundscape of strings, soul, and heritage.
You know it’s a good day when soul singer/songwriter, Louis Baker, picks up our drifting souls and transports us to a new dimension of groove.
Every drop of Baker’s seven-track album, Love Levitates, is strikingly golden. Oozing with enticing jazz tones, the album floods the ears with sonic serotonin on the opus’ of life.
Following his 2019 debut, Open, nominated for Best Soul/RnB Album in the Vodafone NZ Music Awards, Baker worked with producer, Devin Abrams to deliver a fresh set of tracks that takes his honey-dripped sound to a riveting new level.
Deep diving into his Aotearoa roots, Baker attributes Love Levitates to the friendships and heritage that influenced his all-consuming sound. The album opens with Brighter Day, a track dedicated to Baker’s grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Baker (Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Tu).
Although he never met him, Baker electrifies the senses with an angelic wave of strings to capture the harrowing experiences his grandfather faced in World War II. The tune so intimately tugs on the harrowing nostalgia of Lieutenant’s contribution to the 28th Māori Battalion, we are left with nothing but the distant echoes of vinyl crackles at the end of its groove.
The album shifts into Overdrive, a bass-throbbing funk tune featuring New Zealand rapper/producer, Kings. What follows is the album’s title track, Love Levitates, a dreamily harmonic soundscape, layered with the tightly wound DNA of orchestral strings, jazz-infused drums and Baker’s soothing vocals.
Baker grounds and consumes each passing wave of sound as he sings, “An ancient wisdom can be known/In the reflections we are shown”. Each track interconnects with the next, igniting an effervescent vein of unity and closeness to one’s heritage. “I love Eastern philosophy, particularly Taoist though… this often sparks an idea or concept in me such as; the oneness of self and environment or duality” he explains.
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Won’t Forget hits you next, with guitar strings tightly winding around the memory long after the track ends. Shifting down a path of RnB soul, Baker showcases his versatility, trickling alongside the likings of Marvin Gaye, D’Angelo and Anderson.Paak. The lyrics of Into Your Life: “I think we capture the essence when we don’t try/Let it be, let it happen”, reflect the effortlessness charter into jazz-fuelled space.
With the silky Outro, Louis Baker establishes himself as both a rarity and necessity. His ability to capture the nurturing stillness of being in the moment is utterly infatuating, making Love Levitates a timeless, transcendent album.
Become transported with Love Levitates below:
