One easily imagines that life on a farm in northeast Iowa can be beautiful and tranquil – but also devastatingly lonely. Illinois singer-songwriter Lissie (Elisabeth Corrin Maurus) hinted as much when she released “Boyfriend” in June this year. The song amounted to a laidback and sensual ode to an ideal lover who would share her appreciation for the idyllic pastoral pleasures that she left California for. With the recent release of “Blood and Muscle” – the second glimpse of her upcoming fourth album Castles (March 23rd, 2018) – Lissie’s desire takes on a deeper and more spiritual urgency.
The sparse piano ballad is idealistic and realistic; Lissie described it to Billboard as “a song about an ideal romantic love but more so about wanting real, solid and tangible presences in my life”. With a voice that soars with strength and quivers with a fearless demonstration of vulnerability, she describes the mature brand of romance she is looking for in concrete terms: ‘I want a love that’s brave, can take my tears/ I wanna laugh at the dark like I’m not scared of nothing/ I wanna love that’s made of blood and muscle’.
She may have left her western sonic influences behind for a full-on west coast pop sheen, but the raw, weathered and gritty authenticity she expressed in previous songs – “They All Want You”, her cover of “Bad Romance” – lives on to awe listeners. As she draws out each word in the bridge ('Real and warm and alive/ And not just in my mind'), you find yourself believing that no substitute will compare to the real thing.
