LP

Genre-bucking Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter LP emerged in the early 2000s with a vibrant blend of vulnerability, swagger, and steely hooks. Known for their elastic and expressive voice, which evokes names like Linda Perry, Gwen Stefani, and Chrissie Hynde, LP has issued a string of acclaimed albums such as Suburban Sprawl & Alcohol (2004), the Billboard 200-charting Forever for Now (2014), platinum-selling European breakthrough Lost on You (2016), and Churches (2021). In the meantime, they wrote for the likes of Christina Aguilera, Rihanna, Spoon, and Rita Ora, among others. Their seventh studio album, Love Lines, landed in 2023.
Raised in New York on a steady diet of Joni Mitchell, the Doors, the Pretenders, Nirvana, and Jeff Buckley, LP spent their formative years honing their craft in other bands before relocating to California and releasing their 2001 debut solo album, Heart-Shaped Scar. It was produced by David Lowery (Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker). LP began to hit their stride in 2004 with their second outing, Suburban Sprawl & Alcohol, which featured the track “Wasted,” used as the theme song for seasons two and three of the Nickelodeon teen drama South of Nowhere. Their 2006 appearance at the South by Southwest Music Conference prompted a bidding war, resulting in a deal with Island Records.
With Island, LP began writing songs for other artists, including Cher, Leona Lewis, Rihanna, and Christina Aguilera. A 2011 bank television commercial that featured excerpts from LP’s “Into the Wild” gained them a huge fan base as viewers eagerly looked to the Internet to discover the identity of the artist singing “Somebody left the gate open” — the track earned enough attention to warrant a CNN news piece. Their Warner Bros. debut EP, Into the Wild: Live at Eastwest Studios, appeared in April 2012, but it was another two years until a full-length Warner release, the Rob Cavallo-produced Forever for Now, was issued. It entered the Billboard 200, peaking at number 132.
In 2016, LP issued their fourth studio long-player, Lost on You, on Vagrant Records. The album’s opening track, “Muddy Waters,” appeared during the taut closing scene of the season four finale of Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black. Meanwhile, the album’s title track topped the singles charts in at least half a dozen European countries, and the Lost on You LP charted broadly outside the U.S., achieving Top Ten placements and platinum status in countries including France, Italy, and Poland.
Marking a move to BMG, LP returned two years later with their fifth studio long-player, Heart to Mouth, which became another international success, spawning the hit single “Girls Go Wild.” In 2021, they delivered the emotionally charged singles “The One That You Love” and “How Low Can You Go,” which charted in multiple countries ahead of their sixth album, Churches. Like their two previous albums, it found chart success throughout Europe, particularly in the Czech Republic, where it became their third straight record to reach the Top Ten. Mid-2023′s “Golden” marked the first taste of LP’s seventh album, that September’s Love Lines. It also included the singles “One Like You” and a driving “Love Song.” ~ James Christopher Monger