Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Nothing is truly pure, nothing is as lily white as people think, there is always a trace or a tint of impurity in even the most honest of actions and the simplest of deeds; for in the Off White comes truth and sanctuary, the harbour safe from invasion because it is more demanding to storm than those naturally guarded and tough to break down.
Lotte Kestner’s new album, Off White is one that is steeped in the beauty, the demand, of the impure and beautiful; it is an album that is more importantly, unafraid to be seen to care, that the tinge is not to be seen as something that should be shied away from, but instead should be embraced, should be seen as courage in the course of the Folk genre and one that is confident in its delivery.
That confidence is infectious, even with the sense of melancholy, of love and regret that fills each bar and narrative, the confidence is still holding the weight of expectation up with pride; that off white, the small lie will tell ourselves that all will be alright is one that is measured and responsive, that is in itself, a feeling to be explored and not taken issue with. It is not revelling in the despair as some might suggest but holding on to a sense of reality, that your words are as deep and valued as others and that the self-belief can carry you onwards.
Lotte Kestner captures that sense of poise and turns it into belief; the support needed is always reciprocated as she takes up the task of building bridges between her and the mind, offering the audience a type of instruction manual in which they also might benefit from. In songs such as In Glass, Have You Sailed Home, Another Moon, Go To Sleep Now and Ghosts, Ms. Kestner is fearless, she is intrepid and valiant, it is the courage and the conviction that makes a human being so alluring. It has nothing to do with fashion, the fancy clothes, the amount of likes on social media; what matters is that in amongst the Off White is truth, hard perhaps to grasp but beautiful and fulfilling because of it.
A splendid album by Lotte Kestner, one filled with the undaunted and the ability to ease the troubled, Off White is an American Folk 21st Century legend.
Ian D. Hall