Tag: The Lovelines Strange Kind of Love

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Lovelines Share Jazzy and Poppy “Low Fidelity”

Orlando-based sibling duo and JOVM mainstays The Lovelines — Tessa D (vocals) and Todd Goings (multi-instrumentalist, songwriting and production) — emerged into the scene with the late 2021 release of their debut single “Strange Kind of Love,” a slick synthesis of Amy Winehouse-like blue-eyed soul, jazz standadrs and Dummy-era Portishead-like trip-hop paired with Tessa D’s soulful crooning and a dusty production featuring twinkling Rhodes, wobbly guitars and an infectious, razor sharp hook. 

Over the past year, the Orlando-based JOVM mainstays have released material from their forthcoming full-length debut single-by-single over that period.

So far, I’ve written about two of their forthcoming album’s singles:

  • “May Be Love,” a slow-burning torch song-like take on trip hop and neo-soul built around shimmering pedal steel and congo-led percussion paired with Tessa D’s soulful vocal expressing an aching longing for love — and to be loved. 

  • “What Kind of Fool Would Want to Fall in Love?” a breezy pop song built around a looped, shimmering, finger plucked acoustic guitar melody and percussive percussion paired with Tessa D’s soulful crooning. On one level, the song views love with a healthy cynicism — but as the band’s Todd Goings explains, “What Kind of Fool Would Want to Fall in Love is a portrait of the fool in love. Do only fools fall in love or does love make us fools?“

The duo’s latest single “Low Fidelity” is a decidedly jazz pop/pop jazz take on their firmly established trip hop-inspired jazz that’s rooted in their penchant for incredibly catchy hooks, dusty, old-school inspired production paired with Tessa D’s soulful crooning.

“The song ‘Low Fidelity’ is the band playing with the dual-meaning of the phrase Low Fidelity,” The Lovelines’ Todd Goings explains. “We like listeners to spell out their own conclusions with our lyrics, so that’s what I’ll say, I guess. With the sound of this single, we have this concept of sounding poppy to a jazz audience, and jazzy to a pop audience I think of pop music as an arrangement thing, not a characteristic instrument or sound. If you arrange a jazz composition like it’s a top 40 pop song, and you can then use chord progressions and chromatic phrases that aren’t common in pop music with this tool. We love pop… but the colors in jazz feels truer to the human emotional spectrum than pop, life sounds more like a Gmaj7 than a Gmaj, it’s more grey… than black… or white, don’t you think? We’re experimenting with the fader on the spectrum between the jazz and pop spectrum. What’s too jazz, what’s too pop? We don’t know the answer (haha).”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstays The Lovelines Share Sultry “Make Believe”

Orlando-based sibling duo and JOVM mainstays The Lovelines — Tessa D (vocals) and Todd Goings (multi-instrumentalist, songwriting and production) — with the late 2021 release of their debut single “Strange Kind of Love,” a slick synthesis of Amy Winehouse-like blue-eyed soul, jazz standadrs and Dummy-era Portishead-like trip-hop centered around Tessa D’s soulful crooning and a dusty production featuring twinkling Rhodes, wobbly guitars and an infectious, razor sharp hook. The single eventually rose to #1 on SubmitHub’s Popular Charts.

The Orlando-based duo’s second single, “Dark Thoughts About A Pretty Flower,” a sultry trip hop-like number with a dusty lo-fi-like production featuring twinkling Rhodes, slashing guitars, propulsive polyrhythm paired with Tessa D’s soulful crooning and an infectious hook. “‘Dark Thoughts About A Pretty Flower’ was written to be free for interpretation,” The Lovelines’ Todd Goings explained to me in an email. “Is it a song about love or is it a song about a literal flower? Is it a song about pessimism, or a song about perversion, or is it a song about both?”

The duo have written and recorded their full-length debut and plan to release it single-by-single over the course of 2022-2023. The album will feature previously released singles “Dark Thoughts About A Pretty Flower” and “Steadily,” a woozy featuring dusty hip hop-inspired breakbeats, glistening Rhodes, a supple bass line and the duo’s uncanny knack for crafting razor sharp hooks. Tessa D’s sultry vocal floating through the Geoff Barrow-like mix production helped further cement their unique take on trip-hop.

The Lovelines’ first single of 2023, “Make Believe” is a slow-burning and woozy take on trip-hop featuring dusty breakbeats, twinkling keys, shimmering bursts of pedal steel paired with Tessa D’s gorgeous and soulful delivery expressing a mix of longing, desire, desperation and pride. The song focuses on the push and pull of a dysfunctional relationship that can’t quite be escaped.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Orlando’s The Lovelines Share Woozy “Steadily”

Orlando-based sibling duo outfit The Lovelines — Tessa D (vocals) and Todd Goings (multi-instrumentalist, songwriting and production) — emerged late last year with their debut single “Strange Kind of Love,” which rose to #1 on SubmitHub’s Popular Charts.

Once you hear “Strange Kind of Love,” you can kind of hear why it took a portion of the blogosphere by storm. “Strange Kind of Love” is a slick synthesis of Amy Winehouse-like blue-eyed soul, jazz standadrs and Dummy-era Portishead-like trip-hop centered around Tessa D’s soulful crooning and a dusty production featuring twinkling Rhodes, wobbly guitars and an infectious, razor sharp hook. 

Their second single “Dark Thoughts About A Pretty Flower” continued in a similar vein as its predecessor: a sultry trip hop-like number with a dusty production featuring twinkling Rhodes, slashing guitars, propulsive polyrhythm paired with Tessa D’s soulful crooning and an infectious hook. “‘Dark Thoughts About A Pretty Flower’ was written to be free for interpretation,” The Lovelines’ Todd Goings explained to me in an email. “Is it a song about love or is it a song about a literal flower? Is it a song about pessimism, or a song about perversion, or is it a song about both?”

The duo have written and recorded their full-length debut and plan to release it single-by-single over the course of 2022-2023. The album will feature the previously released “Dark Thoughts About A Pretty Flower” and their latest single, the woozy “Steadily.” “Steadily” sees the Orlando-based duo firmly cementing their sound, a soulful take on trip hop in which Tessa D’s sultry vocals are paired with Geoff Barrow-like productions — in the case of the new single, strummed acoustic guitar, dusty hip hop-like breakbeats, glistening and twinkling Rhodes, a supple bass line and an infectious hook.

Interestingly, much like its predecessors, the new single feels rooted in lived-in experience: “Steadily is a song about a relationship between an old-fashioned romantic and a modern age lover,” the Orlando-based duo explained to me via email. “The singer knows that the modern age lover doesn’t have the same old fashioned ideals about love as her.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Orlando’s The Lovelines’ Sultry New Single

So I royally fucked something up yesterday and realized after I posted something that I confused two different songs by the same artist. We all have off days but that’s — well, something different. I’m really sorry for the confusion. But let’s back to business at hand . . .

Orlando-based sibling duo outfit The Lovelines — Tessa D (vocals) and Todd Goings (multi-instrumentalist, songwriting and production) — emerged late last year with their single “Strange Kind of Love,” which rose to #1 on SubmitHub’s Popular Charts.

Once you hear “Strange Kind of Love,” you can kind of hear why it took a portion of the blogosphere by storm. “Strange Kind of Love” is a slick synthesis of Amy Winehouse-like blue-eyed soul, jazz standadrs and Dummy-era Portishead-like trip-hop centered around Tessa D’s soulful crooning and a dusty production featuring twinkling Rhodes, wobbly guitars and an infectious, razor sharp hook. 

“Dark Thoughts About A Pretty Flower” is a soulful and sultry take on trip hop featuring Tessa D’s soulful crooning paired with a dusty production featuring twinkling Rhodes, buzzing and slashing guitars, propulsive polyrhythm and their uncanny knack for infectious hooks.

“‘Dark Thoughts About A Pretty Flower’ was written to be free for interpretation,” The Lovelines’ Todd Goings explained to me in an email. “Is it a song about love or is it a song about a literal flower? Is it a song about pessimism, or a song about perversion, or is it a song about both?”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Orlando’s The Lovelines Share a Soulful Take on Trip-Hop

Orlando-based sibling duo outfit The Lovelines — Tessa D (vocals) and Todd Goings (multi-instrumentalist, songwriting and production) emerged late last year with their single “Strange Kind of Love,” which rose to #1 on SubmitHub’s Popular Charts.

Of course, once you hear “Strange Kind of Love,” you can kind of hear why it took a portion of the blogosphere by storm. “Strange Kind of Love” is a slick synthesis of Amy Winehouse-like blue-eyed soul and Dummy-era Portishead-like trip-hop centered around Tessa D’s soulful crooning and a dusty production featuring twinkling Rhodes, slashing and buzzing guitars, propulsive polyrhythm and an infectious, razor sharp hook.

“‘Dark Thoughts About A Pretty Flower’ was written to be free for interpretation,” The Lovelines’ Todd Goings explained to me in an email. “Is it a song about love or is it a song about a literal flower? Is it a song about pessimism, or a song about perversion, or is it a song about both?”