LUH.: "Unites"

Get a load of this guy—pasting a page from Tropic of Cancer on his website and singing lyrics like, “My heart’s been drunk on kerosene/ And you are the light.” Ellery Roberts is out here flexing like, “do you even feel, bro?” So there’s a three-letter phrase that might dissuade people from the jump on “Unites”, and it sure isn’t the bandname “LUH.” (though that probably isn’t helping). But even if Roberts’ work in WU LYF and afterwards is covert emo, it’s in the same way that Rick Ross is technically gangsta rap—a most overblown, cinematic and thrilling rendering of a delirious, high-stakes lifestyle unencumbered by factual accuracy.

Whether or not you relate to the epic, emotive grandstanding of “Unites”, there’s no way you’ve ever experienced this kind of thing and made it out alive. But in “Unites”, Roberts doesn’t worry much about mortality or morality or reality for that matter. He thinks he’s Bruce Springsteen, Pat Benatar and Bono, nicking the verse melody from goddamn “Born in the U.S.A.”, the general message from “Love is a Battlefield”, and the booming, empty-arena echo of The Unforgettable Fire, aligning himself with some of history’s most melodramatic, scene-chewing hams. Emotional hardcore? Nah, but definitely hardcore emotional.  

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