ALBUM REVIEW: JACQUELINE LOOR “Show Them”
Photo credit: Hector Socorro
“If you listen to it, there’s a real person behind each song who actually went through a situation and learned something about themselves, and learned that they’re stronger than they thought they were,” Jacqueline Loor on Show Them
Jacqueline Loor is one of a kind. She surprises you with her versatility and enormous vocal capacity. Loor captures sounds and portrays emotions in a meaningful, authentic way. There’s no pretense in her music, which makes her art so powerful and soul-reaching. Show Them is an epic, cinematic, poetic, mind-blowing grand opening to the artistic world of Jacqueline Loor.
Inspired by her twin sister’s journey breaking free from toxic, unhealthy relationships, Loor dedicated her debut album Show Them, featuring 13 songs to inspire and initiate changes. Show Them is about self-worth and finding strength. It’s about courage and breaking free. Closing up to a melancholy, vulnerable, introspective “Coming Undone,” the song immediately gives you chills in its deep, emotive, soul-shaking sonics. Strings clutterings and vocal soaring, haunting melody ring in your head for long. Stepping into the world of “Don’t You Pretend,” tearing with a wrenching vocal that gradually blurs into the light and eventually becomes invisible. Loor’s performance on this song is truly remarkable.
The album arrives at the time of change when it reaches “I’m Done With You” capturing the moment of realization with a beautiful monologue that glooms in the dark. Growing from the underworld, climbing its way out with strength and determination as the painful experience hardens the softcore. The turning point of the becoming is a glance of true beauty. A very slight, expressionistic Spanic influence in the sonics that reminds you of bold, blossoming red flowers.
From the tenderest memory, “Burn it Down” stretched its wings, turning into the most heart-wrenching, raw, and destructive anthem with emotive strings and cathartic choirs. “This world, they break you down and tear you part, and that’s when the fire starts,” said Loor. In this stage of Show Me, the energy changed again with a splash of hardcore, badass edginess. Groovy, dark, enchanting gospel marks the beginning of a change in narratives. Bouncing between swirling electronic soundscapes and punk rock spirit, “Find Your Way” is a head-banger that combines lightheartedness and naughtiness in the celebration of a reunion with self. In a completely different way, it reminds you of the 16-year-old Avril Lavinge, sticking her tongue out, leaving a part of herself in the music.
When the order is restored, the sky is clear and the air is fresh again. “Show Them” and “I Can Fly” light up with subtle soundscape and a shift of focus on the vocal and empowering message, coming in a full circle. “I Broke My Heart” and “Carry Through” revisit heartbreak with immersive, reverberant melancholy and introspection.
Read our review on “I Can Fly”
“It’s all about a person being who they really are,” Loor says of the title track “Show Them,” “I’m very big on an individual being who they are instead of trying to conform or being put in a box. I’m a big advocate for people being themselves. I do that especially as a mom: I want all kids to know how beautiful and how perfect they are, and sometimes I do think my twin struggles with self-esteem; she doesn’t realize how amazing she is.”