#loma

This gesture of directly confronting the inevitable is writ large in the title and ragged demeanor of opening cut, “Please, Come In.” While Loma’s last album, Don’t Shy Away, dabbled in synthy art-pop, How Will I Live…? immediately keeps things more closely aligned with the aesthetics of the band’s stunning self-titled debut. Given one of their members, Dan Duszynski, is a seasoned producer, it’s no surprise that this album sounds amazing, with a rich low-end filled out with bass guitar and piano, peppered with rhythmic details and Jonathan Meiburg’s quicksilver electric guitar playing. And then there’s Cross’s voice, which is always gorgeous but feels especially at home among these simultaneously mournful yet graceful songs. Essentially, Loma are tapping into their inherent tendencies toward the immense, glorious, slowcore sound of a band like Low.

After “Please, Come In” has blown off the dust, “Arrhythmia” is a much more lithe, sinuous creature. It simmers over with shaker and whining feedback, while the propulsive rhythm section keeps everything on the rails, Cross singing sweetly of a mind in freefall:  “Can I trust how I feel every day? Is the world what I think it to be?” “Unbraiding” packs a scalp-scything wallop of fuzz guitar into its seductive scene of nocturnal reverie, before the weighty trudge of “I Swallowed A Stone” throws its curveball of an image right up front: “I drowned my darlings and I stepped to the road.’ (Way to start a song with a vivid noir vibe...) Single “How It Starts” feels like the emotional heart of the record, Cross’s voice ascending free of the gravity of the song’s piano-and-drum-driven backing. On an emotionally intense album, Loma wisely sequence a brief instrumental interlude, “Dark Trio,” at the midway point, and “Pink Sky” lightens Side B with its comparatively breezy tune, reminiscent of “Ghost Town” by The Specials.

“Broken Doorbell” is the album’s home-stretch epic, running to nearly eight minutes. The brooding piano, insistent kick drum and multiple vocal tracks set up an eerie scene, before the full kit enters with a wonderful sense of catharsis. (Loma know how to build and release tension without it becoming predictable quiet-loud tedium.) The song’s refrain, “So come on in!” comes across like the album’s apex, an elevated view affording a feeling of acceptance. But Loma save a moment of quiet revelation for last. With the sound of the ocean washing against a stony Cornish beach, and little more than a nylon-string guitar, Cross’s voice, and a sad distant violin, the hopeful folk-tinged refrain of “Turnaround” suggests we’re not just moving from one state into the next, but rather becoming the next link in the chain of eternal return.