In the solo recordings of Laura Wolf, one-half of the new duo Lilts, her vocal stylings seem to guide the direction of her art-pop's composition. It's a Björk-like quality where all the music takes direction from Wolf's playful, restless singing, even when her voice is just a texture in the background. You get the same sense from her new dream-pop act, formed with John Ross, bandleader of Wild Pink.
On "Dodge Street," Lilts's debut single premiering today on The FADER, Wolf's voice is the texture and quality of a sunset closing a day full of disappointment and regret. The lyrics are sparse, each word stretched out over the song to increase their power: "It felt different in my head," Wolf sings, "Followed blindly as you led." The pain and the power of this devastating realization are balanced by the slyly driving instrumentation, all glittery guitar and hazy melody.
"'Dodge Street' was written as a game of telephone," Ross writes in a statement. "I sent Laura a voice memo called 'Dodge Street' after the name of the street where I happened to be parked. Laura chopped up the recording of my guitar strumming, reimagined the chord progression and sent me back a song structure with a vocal melody. I interpreted Laura's demo with added bass and drums and from there Laura built a lyrical scenario originally intended to rhyme with 'Dodge Street'. Though the title didn't make it into the song, the heart of the title remained. 'Dodge Street' is about the disappointment of living for someone else's dreams."