The Music Rag: LP

LP (Laura Pergolizzi) is an alternative rock singer and pop/rock songwriter. She was signed to her first label in 2006 and began writing songs for other artists, including Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera, Vicci Martinez, and Rihanna.

This is the best way I can find to describe seeing, then hearing, LP perform for the first time:

In 2011, LP signed to Warner Brothers Records and, shortly after, her song, "Into The Wild," was featured in a Citi Bank commercial; it's the song people most recognize, solely because a few lines were featured in a thirty second commercial, but the song itself is truly great. It was the first song LP performed which she had written herself; she performed it in front of the music industry people she normally associated herself with and has stated that, though she enjoyed song-writing and working behind the scenes, she had gotten to the point where she had written songs she felt only she could sing.

Her first album, Into The Wild, is a compilation of five of her songs, recorded live. Her next full-length album is, supposedly, in production and set to be released sometime in 2012, though this year is coming to a surprisingly quick end and a release date has yet to be set.

LP writes all of her own songs, giving herself the advantage of writing a song which will best suit her voice but, even when she does her covers, her voice is amazing. "Levitator" and "Wasted Love" are my favorite songs of hers but, though "Levitator" does show off her voice, her voice is not quite as amazing in the other songs as it is in "Someday" (a song she co-wrote with Isa Summers, from Florence + The Machine).

Hearing her sing, or watching her live performances, on your computer or iPod does not do her voice justice. Her stage presence is so powerful, a feat especially difficult for a single female with only a ukulele and a microphone at their disposal, that it gives the songs a sense of urgency, in a good way, the way that you can only feel at a concert; blissfully happy with the performance, amazed by how great the artist is live, and desperately waiting for the next song so that you do not miss a thing. I feel slightly indebted to my friend for forcing us to arrive at the festival early to get good 'seats' for Passion Pit, and then for forcing me off the curb and up to the front of the gate to watch LP perform, rather than ignoring the stage until Passion Pit was on it (the only other time she was this right about a situation was when she claimed that, no, I was not too white to see Wiz Khalifa).