La Luz

“I was in a dream, but now I can see that change is the only law.” With a credo adapted from sci-fi author Octavia E. Butler, an album title from a collection of metaphysical poetry, and an expansion in consciousness brought on by personal crisis, guitarist/songwriter Shana Cleveland learns to embrace a changing world with unconditional love on 'News of the Universe', the new album from La Luz. A record born of calamity, a work of dark, beautiful psychedelia reflecting Cleveland’s experience of having her world blown apart by a breast cancer diagnosis just 2 years after the birth of her son. It’s also a portrait of a band in flux, marking the first appearance for drummer Audrey Johnson and the final ones from longtime bassist Lena Simon and keyboardist Alice Sandahl, whose contributions add a bittersweet edge to a record that is both elegy for an old world and cosmic road map to a strange new one. Unashamedly vulnerable, unabashedly feminine, and undeniably triumphant, the release is another knockout record from a band so reliably great that it has perhaps led people to overlook how pioneering La Luz really are: women of color in indie music forging their own path by following their own artistic star into galaxies beyond musical trends, always led by an earnest belief in the cosmic power of love and a great riff. Never is that more true than on this album, which might be La Luz’s most brutal record to date but also their most blissful. After everything, how could it not?