On his new single ‘Marlena’, singer Paul Loren evokes the warm sound of Jules Shear, the piano work of Billy Joel, the emotive production of Jon Brion and the old-school balladry of Todd Rundgren to create a compelling song of longing and loss. The resonant track appears on Loren’s Fall album ‘Betwixt’, and is accompanied by a cinematic music video, shot in the desert in the middle of a relentless heat wave.
Watch the video here:
“Marlena” is a road song, through and through. I remember driving home last year, up from the South, in an almost dream-like state, entranced by the highway lines. When you’re on hour 7 or 8 of the drive and trying to make decent time, you just lock into a sort of high-speed flow state. I thought those lines on the road served as a good metaphor,” Loren shares of the track. “They can be a map to lead us back to lost love, or a postcard of our age and mortality, or a transient reminder of the ties that both bind and separate us. Marlena the character—the real person—was just as elusive and ephemeral as those lines: every time you felt you held her in your sight, she vanished back down the highway.”
Brooklyn-based Loren is a youthful old-school entertainer with a twinkle in his eye – it’d be easy to imagine him being introduced by Dick Clark or Johnny Carson, back in the day. He’s got a Rat Pack retro style but he sings about modern themes.
‘Betwixt’ draws inspiration from Loren’s recent months of heartbreak, anxiety and anger. He puts the album in the context of our unthinkable year of Covid-19. Working on the new music “helped to drown out the constant sirens from ambulances I’d hear through my window every few minutes. The songs were coping mechanisms that kept my spirit afloat and helped me block out the pain for a few hours a day.”
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Paul Loren is a singer, songwriter, producer and consummate entertainer. A native New Yorker, Paul was raised on the rich legacy of soul, classic pop, and the Great American Songbook and in those musical idioms he feels most at home. Taking elements from early rock ’n roll, rhythm & blues and Brill Building pop, he crafts his music with an ear towards timelessness. With an 11-song collection “Betwixt,” set for release in fall of 2021, Paul is ready to pivot in a new direction. The new songs, while retaining his knack for melody and timeless songwriting chops, traffic in a depth and brutal honesty not found in his earlier material. With an upbeat and groove-based thread that connects all the songs on the record, he ties together the more profound lyrical territory with a blazing rhythm section that feels rearing and ready to hit the road again.