Glow - Alice Phoebe Lou (2021) (Female Artist Spotlight)

by Chloe Richardson

Diving headfirst into the vulnerability of new love, heartbreak and self-acceptance, Alice Phoebe Lou’s Glow is a deeply moving and ethereal piece. “Only When I”, a celestial opener packed with crooning vocals and synthesizers that sound almost like angelic harp music, sets the stage for what’s to come: Lou’s thoughts on a painful breakup and how she used that experience to heal herself. Moving through the album, Lou continues to reminisce on tracks such as “How to Get Out of Love”, a heart-wrenching song in which she begs her lover to “be brutally honest” with her so that she will finally give herself a reason to leave said relationship. It’s not all doom and gloom, though -- in the more upbeat, beach-rock-twinged “Dirty Mouth”, Lou embraces her abrasiveness and reminds her subject that she is not one to be messed with. Although Lou has not completely moved on by the end of Glow, she succeeds incredibly at capturing the agonizing limbo of a breakup’s immediate aftermath, and in a way that leaves you thinking about the album long after its end.