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Jo Morris – bandleader, vocalist, and rhythm guitarist for New Orleans-based band St. Lorelei – likes to create worlds with her lyrics. “I tend to write material that’s based on more of an internal world, whether that’s about love or just imagining fictitious environments,” she says. “All I think about when I listen to music is searching for something that really tugs at me, and I like to try to find the same feeling when I write music.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The band \u2014 also consisting of Marcus Bronson (bass, backing vocals), Philip Cooper (keyboards), Alec Vance (guitar), and Steve Walkup (drums and percussion) \u2014 will release its debut album Beast<\/em> this Friday. It paints colorful pictures of a variety of subjects, from nature to famous film scenes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Much of the album was inspired by listening to the late singer-songwriter Jason Molina; Morris attempted to capture his vivid scene-setting with her lyrics. One of the tracks \u2014 the dark, atmospheric, keyboard-driven “Farewell Transmission” \u2014 shares a title with a song by his band, Magnolia Electric Co.<\/a>, which features evocative lyrics like “Now we’ll all be brothers of the fossil fire of the sun\/Now we will all be sisters of the fossil blood of the moon.” St. Lorelei’s version reads like a letter to the late artist: “I received your farewell transmission\/Its echoes are etched across the sky.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The rest of the album draws from a variety of influences: the dreamy, wistful “Wish” was inspired by The Ronettes, flipping a love song on its head by describing the end of a relationship. In “Night So Dark,” an emotive track reminiscent of The Cranberries, Morris asks with soaring high notes, “Can we make it through another night?” <\/p>\n\n\n\n