Kelsey Lu – ‘So Help Me God’ review: ambitious pop auteur resurges with a riveting testimony

The North Carolinian artist delivers a cathartic break-up album, overcoming resignation with a new sense of resolution and self-compassion

‘So Help Me God’ is a break-up album with a twist. On the record, their first in seven years, art-pop enigma Kelsey Lu is breaking up with their past, processing conflicted emotions and uncertainty, the title an inward entreaty to resolve existential impasse. Though the album chronicles a period of rifts and drifting, paradoxically it’s a decisive and dynamic work.

Between 2019’s ‘Blood’ and ‘So Help Me God’, Lu went roaming – they split from Columbia Records and headed elsewhere, composing soundtracks for the A24 drama Earth Mama and the Netflix documentary Daughters – and the lyrics on ‘So Help Me God’ are ruminative, the musician wavering over every move. And so, a new freedom pervades the album, where Lu’s creative choices are intentional and undaunted, the songs conveying the immediacy of live performance with their voice ever-resonant.

They set the scene with the suite-like ‘Reaper’ – psychedelic lounge graced by jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington (and a surprise Kim Gordon writing credit) – where Lu addresses an ex: “When I left you I threw all your bags away / I lit a match to watch it burn but the pain still stayed / I tried to cope with it by putting it on display / Thinking maybe if I did it’ll go away.” Even the extravagance of this opener shows a rejuvenated ambition and a refusal to compromise, of Lu in full flight.

A paean to belief, ‘Comfort’ recalls ’60s jazz-soul, much like ‘Reaper’. But the songs are too disquieting to be easy listening, the prevailing motifs emptiness and privation. Still, Lu does look outward. Especially powerful is ‘American Sonnet’, Lu recasting the late Wanda Coleman’s poem (‘American Sonnet 18’) exploring urban survival as an atmospheric piano piece. ‘So Help Me God’ has a predominance of beat ballads towards the end, but the mood shifts on ‘Better Than That’ – an avant-garde duet with longtime cohort Sampha – Lu questioning a desultory life.

Not that Lu has eschewed popdom. On several songs, including the delicate ‘What Can I Do’ with acoustic guitar and ‘American Sonnet’, they co-produce alongside the likes of Jack Antonoff , the Grammy-winning super-producer renowned for his partnership with Taylor Swift . And the banging single ‘Running To Pain’, where Lu explores facing fear, is a ‘Blood’ throwback with big synths and beats.

Bookending the album, ‘Cutting Off The Head Of A Ghost’ is wryly fatalistic post-punk – Lu finally disentangling themselves from toxic situations, romantic or professional, acquiring self-knowledge and acceptance: “Knew you wouldn’t last once I met you / So I had to let you go.” Emerging from despondency and aimlessness with a clear purpose, Lu is reclaiming their art. Indeed, they have allowed time to create an immersive album that documents personal growth and brings their experimental ideas to fruition, completing a metamorphosis. ‘So Help Me God’ was worth the wait.