Luisa Lopez Stands Against Police Brutality in “Nothing Left” (premiere)

As much as Luisa Lopez is proud to call herself a Southern singer-songwriter, her hope for her newest album, 45, is to have produced something that transcends the boundaries of what the label suggests. Blending the soul, vintage pop, and gospel influences of her mother’s seven-inch records with the country preferences of her extended family, her sound maintains a Southern charm whilst expanding outward into the territory of electronic music that she had gotten into once she was a little older. As a result, it’s safe to say that the artist has achieved this goal handily, although 45 further establishes it as an artwork unafraid of touching controversy and shedding a light on scandals sadly pertinent to this day.

The slow burn of the album’s second single, “Never Left”, finds its inspiration in an interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates, as the artist attests. Lopez tells PopMatters, “I listened to an interview of Ta-Nehisi Coates in 2015 called “Ta-Nehisi Coates on Police Brutality”. I think he was touring his book Between the World and Me. He began to tell this story of a college mate, Prince Jones, who was shot and killed by the Prince Georges County police in Maryland. I decided to tell his story with what little I could meager out of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ heartfelt narrative, the articles written about him from the subsequent investigation, and from what I want to say was his spirit that ghosted around me after I listened to his story. Since 2001, thousands more black men have shared his fate. There is ‘Nothing Left’ to say.”

The powerful track will be present on 45, an album that Lopez considers her “social commentary album”. Empowering in its raw energy mixed with Lopez’s studied, effervescent musicality, she aims to empower listeners with her inspiring work. 45 is due out on 31 May, with “Never Left” officially set to release on 19 April.