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Lauv’s new album, “~how i’m feeling~,” is a consummate ode to the exposure of raw emotion. Lauv falls into a particular category of popstar boys which includes, among others, Justin Bieber, the members of LANY, Russ, and Khalid. All produce a similar sound — melodic, dreamy, electronic, and more than a little soporific and whiny. This is not to say, of course, that their sound doesn’t work. Singer-songwriter Lauv found major success beginning in 2015, when he uploaded his viral hit “The Other” to SoundCloud and it gained global traction. After his initial success, Lauv went on to co-produce and co-write “No Promises” with Demi Lovato and Cheat Codes. He gained widespread name-recognition with “I Like Me Better” in 2017 (featured in virtually every rom-com for the next year and a half) and his album “‘I Met You When I Was 18 (The Playlist)” in 2018.
“~how i’m feeling~,” dropped on Mar. 6, is not a departure from Lauv’s traditional sound, but rather an extended exploration into what works. Which is to say: breathy vocals, love-stricken lyrics, and ethereal background EDM. It is not music for dancing or for celebrating — it is music for movie montages and the early, sun-soaked honeymoon days of a brand-new relationship (and, later, the long, melancholic nights of a brand-new breakup).
The album’s release style is unique. Somewhat like the rollout for “I Met You When I Was 18,” Lauv released songs periodically, beginning with “i’m so tired” with Troye Sivan in January 2019. The song is one of the best on the album, catchy and just melodramatic enough to be unavoidably relatable. Moreover, “i’m so tired” was a smash success: As of mid-March, it has been streamed almost 463 million times on Spotify.
Lauv followed the reception of “i’m so tired” with “Drugs & The Internet” in April 2019. “Drugs & The Internet,” which kicks off “~how i’m feeling~,” is also one of the better songs on the album, one of many in a series of bare-naked, honest reflections from commercial artists about mental illness, substance abuse, and unsuccessful attempts to fill an internal void.
This is the crux of Lauv’s widespread following. His songs convey unmasked, tangible emotion, and are therefore compelling to a host of listeners searching for something to match what they feel — the kind of songs to listen to during a private Spotify session; the kind of songs that belong on a private Spotify playlist.
Lauv followed the release of “Drugs & the Internet” with “Feelings,” “Sad Forever,” and “Mean It,” this last song the byproduct of a collaboration with LANY. Most recently, in August, he released “Fuck, I’m Lonely” for the Netflix original series “13 Reasons Why,” a tribute to adolescent angst.
“~how i’m feeling~” is not a great album. It is consistently good — most songs achieve at least a three-star rating, with standouts including “Feelings,” “Modern Loneliness,” “Julia,” “Sims,” “i’m so tired,” and “Drugs & The Internet.”
What prevents it from being great, though, is its overwhelming monotony. Lauv has perfected one kind of sound and, with few exceptions, has resolutely refused to deviate from it. He remains in the same six-note range — the same precise, quirky-but-not-too-quirky autotune — and therefore has produced a good, but wholly homogenous, studio album.
It is the kind of album that contains great standalone songs to be incorporated into other playlists, but becomes painful to listen to without pause all the way through. The diagnosis is altogether too much of the same, because oftentimes, the progression is so subtle, it is difficult to distinguish when one song has become another.
That said, one-trick pony or not, “~how i’m feeling~” is an overall crowd-puller, even if it is not a resounding triumph. The album mirrors almost perfectly how it feels to be a young adult in the 21st century, with its conflux of messy love and emotion, late-night profile stalking, and lingering questions of requitedness; of the depression pandemic and the Internet and the incessant search for something real among a sea of holographic projections.
“~how i’m feeling~” is repetitive, and at times mildly trite, but it also has moments of true depth. This is Lauv’s saving grace: While he reproduces and remains true to a single sound, that single sound is superlative.
—Staff writer Emerson J. Monks can be reached at emerson.monks@thecrimson.com.
