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Although Alice Phoebe Lou has been releasing reflective and inviting indie pop for nearly a decade, the recent single “You and I” is her first completely self-produced track. It highlights the artist’s characteristically rich vocals but places them in a more exposed sonic context than in previous songs. The result is an overwhelmingly warm meditation on being in love that showcases Lou’s knack for capturing feelings at their most delicate.
The track begins with Lou’s voice backed only by acoustic guitar, and it doesn’t get much busier from there. Eventually, two electric piano lines join during the chorus, their gentle accents interrupting the lilting guitar strums to guide the transitions between phrases. The track toes the line of sounding too barren, but the subtle layering of guitar and piano create a pensive mood that effectively complements her meandering reflections on the quiet joys and uncertainties of being in love.
Lyrically, the piece dwells in repetition. It opens with Lou singing the titular association “You and I” three times. The multiple invocations don’t get monotonous, rather they convey a childlike earnestness — as if the singer genuinely can’t help but marvel at being with her significant other.
Later, the chorus almost entirely consists of repetitions of “Hoping / Wondering.” Here, the lyrics lose some of their bright-eyed naivete as they acknowledge the future’s unpredictability. The repetition now takes on a ruminating tone, turning over both the promise and unknowns of new love. With these motifs, Lou doesn’t need to tell listeners how she’s feeling. Her yearning and reservation are evident in the way her voice lingers on certain phrases in the space created by the stripped down backing track.
It’s fitting that Lou’s first independent project turns down the production, placing vocals front and center. She has described on Pitchfork that Nick Drake’s delicate performance on “Pink Moon” as an influential work that struck her for its deep melancholy. On “You and I,” the singer-songwriter gets the closest she has in her career to reproducing the magic of Drake’s foundational album. The resonance is there in the simplicity and wandering lyrics. Despite these similarities, the single doesn’t feel derivative, or even like a well-executed homage. The way in which the vocals are simultaneously cinematic, effortless, and warm are uniquely Lou’s.
Excitingly, she has announced that the rest of the upcoming record featuring this track will be similarly “simple & sincere.” As such, “You and I” offers a promising preview of this shift towards production that doesn’t sacrifice emotional depth. Indeed, the song closes with the reassurance “You know me / I wanna give.” While spoken to the song’s beloved subject, these words perhaps also apply to Lou’s relationship with her fans. With a more intimate production ethos, it sounds like Lou still has more she wants to share with listeners.
—Staff writer Andrew K. Choe can be reached at andrew.choe@thecrimson.com.
