So, America got “Girls Go Wild,” and Europe got “Dreamer,” how upside down! Anyway – if there is a singer who doesn’t need a diva song to prove anything, that’s surely LP. But, well, it seems that if LP just has the whim to sing a Whitney Houston song, she simply writes one for herself. Just like that. God, we love the way she gets around her writing portfolio, never clinging to any line for longer than one track, however successful it’s been. You can’t really put a finger on her style, can’t give it a name and be happy with closing yet another phenomenon within the safe limits of what’s familiar. She won’t have that. We’re having a really hard time trying to point out any other successful contemporary artist who does that. And it seems to us like there’s not-a-one. And the most impressive part of it all is that she maintains this approach while writing her new music, and it’s nothing short of fearless. There’s surely a price for getting there, to that nonchalant and fearless place, but hey, what a view it must be from way up there.
LP in Merano, © Ilaria Silva, courtesy of the author
When LP opened her American tour back in February, she put one new song on the setlist, the brilliant “Girls Go Wild.” In June, she kicked off her Summer European Tour similarly, introducing another new song, “Dreamer,” at her tour opening show in Italy. We had the pleasure of hearing “Dreamer” live for the first time shortly after, on the second night of the tour, in the most magical set-up of the Merano Botanical Garden, with a tiny little stage placed in the middle of the pond. And while some of LP’s other songs didn’t necessarily benefit from this kind of set-up for a couple of reasons, “Dreamer” really couldn’t have got any better framing. You have to imagine a really big song, “Halo”-like, with really really big vocals, growing only bigger throughout the song, and picture it being performed literally on the water, with sounds reverberating between its surface and the neo-Gothic castle just above. Quite the circumstances to say hello to a new song, aren’t they?
“Dreamer” has all it takes to be played over the radios over and over. The song glitters with rock/pop chic and flirts a little bit with Aerosmith’s classics from their pure rock era. It’s everything – it’s a diva song, it’s a rock ballad, it’s an anthem for everyone who dreams about something, which makes, well, everyone. We feel like, with “Dreamer,” LP has shifted the balance that she usually sets when telling the stories of her songs into a more universal ground. It almost feels like she took some of the song’s charge off of herself and moved it towards some shared experience. What we mean is that compared to, say, “Girls Go Wild,” “Dreamer” is not exactly a song that cries for the “what’s the story behind the song?” question to be asked. It calls completely for another kind of attention.
As we’re writing this, we’re forcing our way through very thick, dark and heavy clouds over Katowice. It is raining heavily down there, the airport’s tarmac is ugly and smelly and the world feels simply tiring. But in this moment, as we’re rising over the clouds, the sky has turned blue and the sun is shining. Which is the most obvious and natural thing in the world. And yet so surprising, even shocking, each time when the plane rockets you from the gloomy ground and straight into the blinding sunlight. “Dreamer” brings this pleasantly puzzling vibe – a touch of something simultaneously obvious and surprising. In addition, LP has played with different meanings of the word “dreamer” in the lyrics and she has managed to twist it in a really impressive way, which only adds to this overall ambiance when it comes to her writing. Turns out, when she says she doesn’t want to write the same song twice and that she likes the album’s landscape to be diverse, she is dead serious. It doesn’t get much more diverse than how her newest songs are, not only between themselves, but also compared to LP’s other work. And when someone has managed to keep you impressed and surprised for almost two years now, there’s no wonder you’re in that plane again. Wondering which one of these many “dreamers” from the lyrics would actually fit you best.
✶ “Dreamer” live – LP at Stupinigi Sonic Park (June 28th, 2018)
DREAMER – POSSIBLE LYRICS
Baby you’re a dreamer
You don’t know what I need, yeah
Now I know you got heart
But come back from the stars
Your head in the clouds
You never come down
I loved your way
Early days I loved the maze we found
So I’m trying to understand
And I wanna hold your hand
But on your trip you lost my grip somehow
Before the nightmare comes to play
Hold me in the light of day
I just need you here to stay
Baby I’m a dreamer
And I know what I need, yeah
Now I know you got heart
But come back from the stars
Baby I’m a dreamer
And we all have a dream, yeah
But we can’t live in the dark
I can’t see where you are
I know you can’t see
Don’t know who you should be
But baby you got me
I can wake you from your sleep right now
Before the nightmare comes to play
Hold me in the light of day
I just need you here, please stay
Baby you’re a dreamer
You don’t know what I need, yeah
Now I know you got heart
But come back from the stars
Baby I’m a dreamer
And we all have a dream, yeah
But we can’t live in the dark
I can’t see where you are
So, baby don’t
Dream on
Cause I won’t
I dream on
So, baby don’t
Dream on
Baby you’re a dreamer
You don’t know what I need, yeah
Now I know you got heart
But come back from the stars
‘Cause Baby I’m a dreamer
And we all have a dream, yeah
But we can’t live in the dark
I can’t see where you are
Baby you’re a dreamer
You don’t know what I need, yeah
Now I know you got heart
But come back from the stars