“I wish for the rain” and “Nightvisions” – Liana Flores
★★★★★
Similar Artists: Laufey, Billie Holiday, beabadoobee
Liana Flores, a 25-year-old singer-songwriter from England, is leading the way for modern bossa nova artists. From her EP recently, Flores’s track “rises the moon” went viral on the social media platform TikTok. Following her brush with virality, Flores has steadily grown a fan base that is deeply enthralled by her jazzy, Brazillian-pop tracks, which are beloved for a good reason.
Flores’s latest releases, “I wish for the rain” and “Nightvisions,” are proof of her unrelenting, unique talents. There’s something so identifiably sigular about Flores and her music. Between crooning, airy vocals, gothic-horror-inspired visuals, and award-worthy, poetic lyrics, Flores has built a name that hopefully continues to grow.
As someone with multinational roots, Flores has been very open about the cultural inspirations of her music. She has stated that her Brazilian and British heritages are driving forces in her creative process, and she says that she puts great effort and thought into how she blends the two cultural soundscapes. She is decidedly intentional with the way she creates, regarding both her music and the cultural legacies she honors.
Her latest releases come in a long line of masterful, culturally poignant works. “I wish for the rain” feels, aptly, like the backing track to a movie scene in a rainy summer forest. With a simple guitar, a soft drumbeat, and Flores’s vocals all drowning in reverb, the song has the type of floating calmness that only occurs during a soft rainstorm. It takes clear inspiration from bossa nova icons like Roberto Menescal to bring Flores’s Brazilian identity to life.
Similar to “I wish for the rain,” “Nightvisions” is identified by its airy vocals and simple instrumentals. However, unlike the preceding track, this one is fuller in sound. Flores’s vocals are still angelic and high, but they have more weight in this track. The song also utilizes a larger range of instruments, creating a more complex sound to support Flores’s lyrics. Altogether, the crooning vocals, chiming bells, and string instrumentals have a haunting quality reminiscent of Rebecca, Wuthering Heights, and Jane Eyre, which Flores points to as some of the gothic-romantic inspirations for the track.
Overall, a fitting description of Flores’s music may be that it feels like it is meant for the forest, which comes as no surprise considering her love for nature. In fact, Flores has stated that she is a beautiful, strong pine turned human. When asked about her love for trees, she boasted a lyric from her upcoming album that she finds a lot of resonance with: “Hear the new bluebird whistle out her first song / from the tree that will be here long after we’re gone.”
This love of nature is certainly prevalent throughout Flores’s latest releases. With lyrics like “Walk in the rain with nobody there / …A chill in the air / And a moon hanging pale” coming from “I wish for the rain” and phrases like “When over a new planet / The yellow dawn did rise” from “Nightvisions,” it’s not hard to see nature as one of the driving points to her artistry.
Liana Flores is, undeniably, a force to be reckoned with. From exhilarating vocals to picturesque soundscapes, cultural relevance to poetic lyricism, and her representation of an oft-forgotten genre, she is something inspirational. With a discography lacking a single uninspired, mediocre track, I cannot wait to see what her debut album delivers. It’s sure to render both fans and critics stunned and inspired.
Pre-save Liana Flores’s debut album Flowers of the soul here. Releasing June 28th, 2024.