Love, Lani is an aptly named album. Across nine tracks, its creator reflects on love and relationships while shifting through musical genres that are clearly dear to her.
Released in late July, Love, Lani comes from Lani Eclatt, a Des Moines-based musical artist who performs simply as Lani.
The first two songs are upbeat break-up songs. In “Blue,” Lani takes on a delightful doo wop tone to open the album — one that celebrates an ongoing love with a blue-eyed beau. “No Longer In Love” reminisces on a past relationship in which Lani ponders the location and emotional state of a bygone lover. Both songs, at least in terms of instrumentation, wouldn’t be out of place on a playlist with Lake Street Dive or songs from Blue Kid’s Upright, Love album.
In “Amorcito” Lani taps into her Latin-music influences while PettyAssPunkin — another Iowa-area performer — lends her vocals for a rap break. (A clean version of the song fills the slot of the ninth and final track on the album.) That Latin sound returns for “Disgusting,” another post-break-up song — this time with a salsa-infused trumpet helping Lani express the titular emotion towards an ex in English and Spanish. “All I know is now I’ve been set free / ‘cause you’re disgusting.”
Another guest rapper, BASI, pops up in “Girl,” in which the narrator hopes to keep on seeing a girl who’s been hanging around a little more lately.
For track four, “Touch Me,” Lani makes a light return to the jazzy tempo of the opening two songs, before transitioning into something closer to a piano ballad, reminiscent of her previous album Digital Stars.
Gears shift and things slow down a bit at the halfway point, “Without You.” Morose piano chords play before Lani’s mournful lyrics. Tonally it reminded me of some of British musician dodie’s more moody songs — “Burned Out” and “When” in particular — but with a more lonesome piano; when guitar and percussion do add a rock-tinged flair to the song, the piece has nearly already reached its end.
“Who Is She” skews toward rock more than previous tracks. Like the rest of the album, it focuses on the narrator’s relationship dynamics — in this case, a mystery woman who has entered the life of the narrator’s partner. Hence the title and refrain, “Who is she?”
Across all of these tracks, Lani’s voice is aflutter, modulating long-held notes throughout the album. If I do have a critique, I believe it would be with the sound balancing on the album. While the instrumentation is delightful, I wish Lani’s voice rang a bit clearer in many of the songs.
All said, I think my favorites are the more upbeat numbers “Girl” and “Amorcito,” both of which keep Lani’s voice moving beautifully.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s October 2023 issue.
