In Humaura, Los Angeles duo LUCKYANDLOVE step away from the narcotic glow of screens to search for something more elemental: the fragile essence of being human without algorithmic interference. They define the title as “the atmosphere that emanates from the feelings of the human spirit void of technological control.” In that definition lies both the project’s philosophy and its protest.
The album’s pulse is analogue and immediate: Moog textures, warm imperfections, and unvarnished human breath resisting the frictionless sheen of digital uniformity. It is a reminder that music, like democracy, depends on participation, not automation. Recorded with Grammy-winning engineer Be Hussey and mastered for vinyl by Nicholas Townsend, Humaura sounds handmade, not manufactured; a series of deliberate choices rather than a submission to trend.
“This is an action-packed, cinematic, entertaining and soulful electro-dance record full of fresh air and wide-open roads where there is more freedom to party, to be in nature, and to be our wild selves,” says April Love. Her phrasing mirrors the music’s open-ended optimism. She continues: “There was a new quiet that we observed — the pandemic was a weird experience. We tried to make the best of it, making art, taking nature trips, and photographing this microscopic world we discovered. We worked on ourselves, strengthened our relationship, and weaved everything into our music.”
That sense of self-repair runs through the record’s architecture. Humaura feels less like a collection of songs than a process of recovery, each track a deliberate act of mending the fracture between mind and machine. I Am Human, which channels Goldfrapp, examines the paralysis of becoming a “screen zombie,” where identity is flattened into data and presence reduced to performance, then seeks a path back to tactile life…to the grain of a voice, the pressure of air, the sensation of real contact.
Across these moments, LUCKYANDLOVE rebuild the link between emotional labor and artistic creation. Their use of analogue instruments and unfiltered vocals reinforces the theme: imperfection becomes integrity, and connection requires friction. Where much contemporary music mirrors the algorithmic loop of scrolling, Humaura insists on the slow pulse of reflection, reminding listeners that repair is not achieved through convenience, but through care.
Feelz So Good and Run On Run ignite that recovery with motion: escape as philosophy, momentum as medicine. Both tracks pulse with propulsion, the rhythm of wheels on an open highway and the wind-cut exhilaration of choosing one’s own direction. The duo transforms movement into metaphor. There’s a sense of freedom born from velocity, where repetition becomes ritual, and every synth line feels like a step further from confinement. These are songs that treat motion itself as renewal, a reassertion of human agency in a world built to keep us still.
Lonely At Night carries the ache of isolation into something restorative, suggesting that loneliness, when acknowledged rather than avoided, can be transformed into communion. Its tempo is slower, but its heart beats steadily, pulsing with empathy rather than despair. The song doesn’t resolve solitude by denying it; it listens to it, learns from it.
Down To Black is a great synthpop song with strange spacey synths, the vocals bringing to mind a hybrid of Madeline Goldstein and Primitive Heart. Secret Is Out releases long-buried truths with the urgency of confession, but without spectacle; it feels like an unmasking of the self before the self — a quiet act of liberation that trades artifice for authenticity.
Hawks Do Cry channels the operatic reach of Goldstein, Austra, and SRSQ, lifting its melody skyward with gorgeous, soaring vocals and minimalist synths that shimmer just at the edge of restraint before settling into a gentle backbeat. It’s a moment of calm elevation, a reminder that stillness and grace can coexist within the same breath as rebellion.
Melt In Sunshine follows as a fitting coda; an ethereal closer that bathes the listener in light. Its lilting rhythm and soft percussive undertow evoke the radiant edge of a Siouxsie track, guiding the record toward resolution rather than retreat. Melt In Sunshine is a modest proposal that humanity’s next revolution might begin not in data, but in daylight.
“We spent hundreds of hours performing in total isolation – our DTLA rehearsal space, our Echo Park space – and continuing the creative process outside, along the LA river, writing a lot of songs while listening to birds,” recalls Loren Luck. “By truly going ‘underground’ during the making of this album, we were taking back our lives — just by figuring out what it meant being human, in its purest form. Once you make peace with that, your thinking becomes free, so now we’re free to make the rules.”
Listen to Humanura below and order the album here.
LUCKYANDLOVE performs next on December 13 at Mohave Gold Bar in Yucca Valley, California, for Luna Negra Goth Nights Presents, along with BLAKLIGHT and Dead Energy.
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