Loma are releasing their long awaited third album How Will I Live Without a Body? via Sub Pop on June 28th 2024. The much anticipated follow up to their ethereal sophomore album, Don’t Shy Away, sees the band mine a new musical depth; sharing powerfully earnest lyricism and utilizing sophisticated production techniques.

Opening track of How Will I Live Without a Body? “Please, Come in” saunters in with the alluring whistling of a synth faced up against the chirping of birds (captured by Cross) until a steady drum beat and chugging guitar make its way into the track. Cross’ lush vocals sit peacefully within the music. For what is a really simple part, and similarly simple lyrics, it is incredibly effective. It’s the perfect amount of tension you need from an opening track, and successfully sets the mood, and introduces a healthy portion of the sound palette that graces the album. Jonathan Meiburg’s piano settles in right away on the meditative “Arrhythmia.” The shuffling drums of Dan Duszynski sit overtop the ambience of a field recording. It shares the same atmosphere that I recognize from listening to Boards of Canada’s The Campfire Headphase, or Sigur Ros’ Valtari. There’s an otherworldly, ephemeral energy that occurs in music like this that makes it feel like so much more than a song, or a collection of them. It feels more like a portrait of an unplaceable feeling, or an etching of a distant memory. Emily Cross’ introspective and inquisitive lyrics only solidify my assessment. “Can I trust how I feel every day? / is the world what I think it to be?” Cross wonders. That unrelenting shuffle of the drums found throughout the track make for a listening experience that is both anxiety inducing and meditatively repetitive. Match that against Cross’ calm and collected vocal delivery and you’ll find yourself in blissed out melancholy.

“Unbraiding” features some of the most poetic moments of the whole album. Lines like “watch them growing, maybe blooming in the blank terrain” and “white flag over the moon / all this writhing and protest / wiggle free from the ropes,” harken to the prose of folk icons like Joni Mitchell or Nick Drake. But for every folk inspired moment that Loma presents on .HWILWAB?, there’s a sparkling synth or blooming viola that cascades through the song and lifts the band into a whole different stratosphere. “How It Starts” is another example of Loma taking familiar musical ideas and finding ways to turn it on its head and make it their own. A glitchy arpeggiated synth makes its way over the pulsing of sub-synths and pillowy-pads, making for a beautifully nauseating listen.

My personal favorite song on the album, “A Steady Mind,” finds Cross’ wispy refrain sitting over the steady chugging of Dina Maccabee’s viola. The guitar work and atmosphere remind me a lot of “Weird Fishes / Arpeggi” by Radiohead, and has a similarly haunted disposition to it. The disposition of someone who’s felt the ache of wanting more out of life, but subsequently gives in to the banality of comfortility. “With a face worn all the time / held up, exposed to light / knock it over one day,” Cross shares.

Later in the track listing you’ll find the album single “Pink Sky.” A beautifully delicate track, “Pink Sky” features a demanding bassline that sits over sparse guitar passages and group vocal chorus’ from Cross and co. All of HWILAB? sees Loma flaunting their production prowess, but I think this track in particular is an impressive example of their abilities and vision. Percussion darts in and out, hushed vocals hit you from one-ear to the other. If you let it, the song pulls you into Loma’s world and fully immerses you in it.

Nearly 8-minute epic “Broken Doorbell” is yet another impressive late cut on HWILWAB? For a song as long as this one, and as slow a tempo, Loma constantly keeps it interesting. Drones, field recordings, and sublime synths constantly course throughout and provide the perfect landing ground for Cross’ angelic vocals. “Turnaround” is the final track on the album. It’s the most directly intimate and stripped back tune, only flaunting an acoustic guitar, viola and Cross’ vocals. This song is beautiful, and absolutely crushing. “Kid, make your own mess / don’t turn around,” Cross warns. For an album that featured no shortage of collage-like production and endlessly engaging sounds to latch onto, it’s a strong statement to end it with a song that is so quiet and tender.

Pre-order How Will I Live Without a Body HERE