Lal Tuna brings the concept of art school girlfriend to life with her latest release ‘Don’t Forget Me’
A wintery, dreamy and ethereal release that captures a young woman’s angst and insecurity at the hands of her frosty and brutal lover.
Photo: Lal Tuna
From the first note, one is transported to Jeff Buckley’s masterpiece Hallelujah, which has intense, poetic expressions embedded within. This may well be a homage, but Lal Tuna makes it her own — with gentler, dreamy vocals and a beautiful thread of her own harmonies against a jangly bass riff.
Lal Tuna is the lyricist, musician and producer of her own discography, and this authenticity seeps through, creating a powerful build of emotion and seamless layering to her story. The music video is a curation of everything she wants you to see — it is dimmed, rustic, and has nods to the occult and other musicians — we get a peek into the character and mind of Lal Tuna.
From the outset, we are made to feel like an observer of something that will soon run its course, with the song acting as a stream of consciousness of a failed relationship, and her own realisation of the fact.
The sound at the start is soft, hesitant and has an air of vulnerability, with confidence growing with the deepening of the story and as we reach the chorus: “I whispered when you were sleeping / Please don’t forget me”. She has to minimise and make herself smaller by telling him her feelings when he isn’t awake, but her own sense of voice is bold regardless.
Despite the direct references to cruelty from her lover, the song — there are quieter girls that don’t make me mad, the star of the show is our narrator, who deposits relatable and romantic self-reflection and breaking toxic cycles: “I had to throw myself off of that train / To walk a line”.
The lyrics are soft, sexy and pleading, and the ensemble of crashing cymbals, twangy electrics and drawn-out refrains showcases Lal Tuna’s talent for building atmosphere, and she is certainly one to watch in the genre of alternative dream-pop.
Don’t Forget Me is out now via Modular Music.