“If you’re in Paris tell me how you’re fashion weak.”
Singer/songwriter Lolo Zouaï released her third full-length album, Reverie, on April 24th, along with single “Baggy Jeans.” The Paris-born, San Francisco-raised, New York-based singer also recently released single and video for “Holding On,” a track that “illustrates the tension between holding on to the past and loss, and the desire to move forward with your life.” The releases continue a steady flow of new material from Lolo, including a recent collaboration with K-Pop superstar Yves, “Nails.”
From the Reverie press release:
When she started writing, Lolo Zouaï didn’t yet know that Reverie would become her third album. Her initial idea was to create a mostly French EP as a nod to her French-Algerian roots. Then two questions arose: why separate French? And why just an EP? Lolo had previously incorporated French across her first two albums, and fans are aware of her multilingual identity. So, for her third full length album, she decided to embrace the challenge and turn the EP into her 3rd album – writing it half in French, half in English.
Amidst a whirlwind few years of releasing her first two albums High Highs to Low Lows in 2019 and Playgirl in 2022, with her own headlining tours in between, and notably opening for Dua Lipa on 30 shows across the North American run of her Future Nostalgia tour, Lolo tragically lost her best friend Hannah at the end of 2021.
After that loss, Lolo took the time to stop, to cry, to write, and to rediscover the meaning of her music. Two of the opening tracks on Reverie, “Holding On” and “Angel, Give Them Hell”, are dedicated to Hannah and the story of their friendship.Reverie is an album of sensations, emotion, and exploration of identity. As the daughter of French-Algerian parents who emigrated to the United States, Lolo Zouaï has a multi-faceted, multi-cultural identity. “Call me Lolo, not Laureen,” she asserts on the powerhouse track “100”, establishing her artistic persona as a dreamed version of herself: freer, bolder, sometimes reckless. “It’s the version of me that isn’t afraid, the one that has wings. But sometimes, dreaming is also escaping your emotions. So the album is this mix of fantasy and reality.”
