Cream Premiere: Luisa Lopez Contemplates the Infinite Groove in 'Heaven'

Luisa Lopez’s name is one you’ll know if you’ve been following local music closely for the past decade. Maybe you were knocked flat by her effortlessly cool 2010 record Cigarettes and Dirges and the Lake Fever Session that preceded it. Perhaps you happened on one of her all-too-rare gigs around town, like her appearance at She's a Rebel IV. Even if this is the first you’ve heard of the outstanding country-soul-and-more singer-songwriter, there’s some excellent news to share: Lopez has an LP on the way very soon.

The album is called ‘45’, a title that incorporates several notable touchstones: the 45-RPM singles Lopez recalls listening to as a child; a personal response to the presidency of Donald Trump; and Lopez’s age at the time she began recording the album. The record is out May 31, and she’ll play a release show at The Basement on June 2 — advance tickets are $10 (or $15 with a copy of the album on CD, which you can also preorder directly from her website).

Today, we’re very pleased to premiere “Heaven,” the third pre-release track from the album (also take a listen to “Tired” and “Nothing Left”). In a release, Lopez explains that the gently grooving song came to her suddenly, but she waited for the right time to put it together.

“I had the song in my back pocket for about a year and I knew I was going to put it on my album,” Lopez says. “When it came time to produce it, Cassini, the Saturn probe, was being prepped to do its swan song into the abyss of Saturn's atmosphere. And to me, that is the way I want to look at the spirit of our lives: We came, we grew, we saw a lot of beauty, we listened, we shared, we changed — and then we're moving on.”