If
Forever for Now, the first album by modern singer/songwriter
LP, sounds a bit too assured for a debut, there's a reason for that: like many overnight sensations,
LP has paid her share of dues. Some of those dues came in quite prominent places, particularly
Rihanna's 2011 single "Cheers (Drink to That)," which
LP co-wrote, but she had been writing and recording independently for nearly a decade prior, a long history that can be felt in the craft of
Forever for Now but never once heard among its 12 songs. Far from sounding like the fussy work of a professional songwriter, there's a sharp, stylish gleam to the very sound of
Forever for Now, a combination of
LP's savvy pop sensibility and the cool commercial instincts of Rob Cavallo, a producer best known for his work with
Green Day,
Goo Goo Dolls, and
My Chemical Romance. Cavallo is a good fit for
LP, for he accentuates and accessorizes the contours of her songs without diluting the eccentricities. He gives her plenty of space to roam, allowing her to soar as high as a skyscraper on "Tokyo Sunrise" and "Salvation," but also knows when to keep things intimate, as on the haunting coda of the title track. What distinguishes
LP is when she ties these two extremes together with dramatic flair, as she does in the showpiece "Into the Wild," a song that starts hushed but soon explodes. When she's in full flight on "Into the Wild,"
LP can vocally resemble
Neko Case, a comparison that is somewhat misleading;
LP may share a taste for melodrama and powerful lungs like
Case, but she's not an Americana artist, no matter how heavily she adheres to the tradition of auteur singer/songwriters. What makes
LP and
Forever for Now compelling is how she brings that distinctive individual stamp into commercial pop; she's part of a tradition but beholden to her times, not the past. As such, she draws upon anyone from
Case and
Rihanna to
Lady Gaga and
Patti Smith, turning
Forever for Now into a bracing, distinctive debut that's also a statement of purpose. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine