Lady Lamb (formerly Lady Lamb The Beekeeper) is the moniker of Maine-raised, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Aly Spaltro, a modern day pop-experimentalist, with an expressive versatile voice. In 2007, at age 17, she began writing and self-recording music in a video rental store, where she worked the closing shift. Since then she grew into a powerful lyricist and performer. While her songs are rooted in folk, Spaltro has a soulful pop sensibility and an imaginative sense for rich arrangements, producing a glowing, stand-out indie rock on her sophomore album, After.
‘I wanted to make an album that was still uninhibited and still me in every way,’ Spaltro said in a recent interview, ‘but I also wanted to challenge myself to be more direct, I wrote a lot of the first record when I was 18. I was so full of emotions that were battling each other, and the songs reflected that. But now I’m in a different place.’
Her 2013 debut album Ripely Pine (Ba Da Bing/BB*Island) had already caught some attention – especially in the US where she soon was invited to share stages with artists like Torres, Sharon Van Etten, Beirut – and just recently The Decemberists and Conor Oberst.
The Sunday Times picked Ripely Pine as its Album Of The Week and rated it as: ‘One of the most visceral break-up albums the genre has ever offered up… a work whose honesty, uncompromising ambition and caution-to-the-wind recklessness leave you short of breath.’
Indeed it was marked by an undeniable passion and confidence, but where it sometimes lacked in personal narrative and directness is where After shines. The last line on After encompasses the self-assurance of the work as a whole, stating ‘I know where I come from’. This theme is a constant throughout After, as Spaltro seeks to allow the listener to move in closer than ever before, to reflect on the past with grace, and envision the future with fervour. Spaltro invites us to contemplate the dualities that make us human, encouraging the celebration of both fear and love: internally and externally, before and after.
These new works are sonically vibrant, with an assertive use of grit and brightness. Thematically, they provide direct insight into Spaltro’s rumination on mortality, family, friendships, and leaving home.
