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Lena – Loyal To Myself

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Lena - Loyal To Myself

Lena - Loyal To Myself
4.3

Rating

 4.3/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Very versatile pop music album
  • Very personal and intimate stories

In 2010, Germany fell in love with a 19-year old lady. Lena managed to do what somehow felt impossible for almost three decades: Germany won the Eurovision Song Contest. The story of Satellite has been written already 14 years ago. The young lady became a well-established artist in the German pop music scene. On 31st May 2024, she released her new album Loyal to Myself. I had a listen.

 

 

Lena – About The Artist

Lena Johanna Therese Meyer-Landruth was born on 23rd May 1991 in Hanover, Germany, where she also grew up. The paternal part of her family has diplomatic background, she lived at her mother, though. Her biggest song is, of course, Satellite, which was a double platinum chart-topper in Germany. The song also topped the charts in Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark and was Top 10 more or less throughout all European markets. Her debut single was also the leading one to her album My Cassette Player, which finally got five golden records in Germany only. The folloiwing one, Good News, also made it to the top of the domestic charts, driven by two very successful singles, Taken by a stranger (her ESC song 2011) and Stardust.

However, Lena stayed successful after her two ESC appearances. All her albums at least made it to the second spot of the German charts. Only Love, L, her latest long-play, is however dated as of April 2019. She did a couple of singles in the meantime, though, which are partially the bonus tracks of Loyal To Myself. She is also part of the jury of the German The Voice Kids and works as a dubbing actor.

 

Lena – Loyal To Myself – Track by Track

The basic version of the album contains 13 songs and lasts 32 minutes. There is also a version with four additional songs (44 minutes). I skipped the bonus tracks, as they have all been released as singles quite a while ago.

1. Let me dream

Let me dream is some sort of intro track. A slow 66 second song with the fine vocals of the German musician.

2. Loyal to myself

Right after the intro, Lena is sharing the title track of her album with the listener. The song is also the motto of the whole album. Lena was simply not happy with her life any more, she needed to free from anger and doubts. A pop track which has a typical Lena style – and her voice is easy to recognize anyway.

I’m loyal to myself now, wanna get to know meA little bit better, now that I’m the real meLoyal to myself now, ’cause I got potentialI’ve been doing better, gotta be the real me

3. Brown blue eyes

When you kiss me slowly and you love me all night long… Ah, it is getting romantic in the third song. The ballad song reminds of Taylor Swift tracks, but luckily, there is always the characteristic voice of Lena. I fine and also very personal track. I love it.

4. Right reasons

The personal and intimate style of the album continues with Right reasons. However, the beat is much more present in this one, which overall leads to a stronger pop music touch. It’s another really nice one. You can either listen and enjoy or move to the beat of it.

5. First love

In Loyal to myself, Lena is also looking back to her life so far. The fifth song is turning back the time a bit stronger, she is sharing the story of her First love. Even though the song does not feel as handy as the predecessors to me, it is definitely a nice listen.

6. See you later

The songs on the album are rather compact. Only Brown blue eyes just passes the three minute duration mark. This also leads to a very alternating and attractive listen With See you later, the Hanover-based artist is presenting another ballad. This time, the piano is taking over a leading role. And I feel I just cannot praise her vocals too much.

7. Run Charlie

Run Charlie adds a very different flavor to the album. Driven by the strumming acoustic guitar, the song has an indie touch. Especially, the pre-chorus and the chorus as well have a strong hook, Together with the style of the song, this leads to a very enjoyable experience.

8. I miss u

The eighth song of Loyal to myself is called I miss u. The song is a catching gem, I wouldn’t be too surprised if it will be a radio single one day. A very modern composition, which works great.

9. Good again

After a couple of so-far unreleased tracks, Good again is a song which is already known to Lena fans.The song is a very energetic dance-pop song, which is spreding a lot of positive energy – just in line with the story of this one. Great!

I’m feeling better than I ever have
I lost it, now I got it back
Never get enough of that
I’m good, good, good again
Better than I was before
Nothing gets me down no more
That’s what happy pills are for
I’m good, good, good again

10. Unbreakable

Loyal to myself is also full of contrasts. Right after this good mood track, Lena presents Unbreakable. The dark and heavy instrumental intro to the song almost felt like a shocker to me in the context of the album. Indeed though, the song is finally not as evil as it feels in the first seconds. It is even really catching.

11. Mean girls

Can you believe Lena is rapping? The groovy Mean girls is at least facing in that direction. Another surprising flavor on this album, which is actually working out really well. Thumbs up for our ESC hero!

12. Drug worth doing

The last full song (in the regular section of) the album is Drug worth doing. Another very modern track, which is having a rather dark atmosphere in the verses. Lena works with a range of synth sounds in this track. Nice.

 

13. Lass mich träumen

The album opened with Let Me Dream – and it closes with Lass mich träumen. The track is taking the role of an extro and strongly reminds of the very first tune of this album. You don’t have so many occasions to listen to Lena singing in German, so the song is indeed special.

 

Lena – Loyal To Myself – Spotify

Here is Loyal to myself on Spotify:

 

Lena – Loyal To Myself – My View

I am absolutely by Lena’s songs in 2024. Despite it has a clear pop attitude, the songs are very personal and ruthlessly disclose parts of her emotions. The experiments of deviating from the typical Lena pop-style work out well. Finally, the sixth Lena album has much more in stock than just a bunch of songs already released as singles.

Favorite Song: Brown blue eyes

 

Eurovision Song Contest

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Postings about Hanover, Germany

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