“Lovers are inside each of us, fighting and crooning. Reflections are outside of us, reversed versions of the self. . . I feel like these are the themes that haunt my music. Plus it’s just pretty.” –Regan Rebecca
At first blush, Lovers and Reflections first album Swords conjures nostalgia for the adventurous 80’s new wave and pop. One can’t help but hear Kate Bush and Elizabeth Frazier in Regan Rebecca’s vocals, or the sounds of bands like Soft Cell and the Switchblade Sisters in Chris Moore’s production. In most of the promotional material, and in other write-ups, names like Depeche Mode and Madonna are dropped. When I first listened to it I was struck by the apparent breadth of influences, seemingly pulling from every corner of 80’s synth-pop, and combining those sounds with a vocal style that, these days, is usually reserved for more reverb and delay-heavy guitar music. Though the 80’s feel of Swords is undeniable, while interviewing the band I realize that there is more to their artistic ambition than simply returning to and recombining the sounds, vocal and synth, of that decade. Continue reading…