One look into her bright eyes, Little Lapin will have you mesmerised. Auckland-based Lucy Cioffi in her musical alter-ego Little Lapin has finally released her self-titled debut EP. The extremely talented and musically diligent artist has been working hard over the last year on producing and releasing the tracks featured on the EP and we finally get to see the delightful fruits of her labour on the record.
Listening to this EP is like watching sepia images flickering from a projector. The songs feel fragments of a movie as Cioffi, a natural narrator, expresses herself in these poetic scenes. The first song Waiting Room is a purgatory, a place somewhere in between where you were and where you want to be. The video for this song, produced by Indiefilm Productions, is a beautifully animated collage of free falling leaves and rain, and Cioffi being caught in a web; symbols that capture the essence of a song about time passing you by as you wait in anticipation.
The beauty of Silent Tears, and in fact all of this EP, is her restraint; she never over-emotes her vocals, and in a song about suffering in silence it portrays her locked up emotions in a soul-clenching way. The accompanying music video, again directed by Indiefilm productions, perfectly captures the essence of her silent tears. Images of old cinematic melodramas, and water violently pouring into a tea cup, are juxtaposed against Cioffi as she lays almost paralysed next to her lover and delicately sits with her tea. Her silent tears are released vicariously in those opposing images.
Friendship on Fire is a classically sub-pop melody, like a Jenny Lewis song. She has been likened to Florence Welch, but I think her vocals are a mix of Lewis’ lullabies and the lethargic elocution of Lana Del Ray. I even feel a higher-pitched wave of Suzanne Vega in that restraint she has vocally. This technique creates an intrigue in its simplicity, and works so well with great lyricists and musical poets like Cioffi as the weight is not solely on how she sings but also what she sings.
From the onset of Yellow Brick Road you feel like those ruby red shoes slip onto your feet and make you skip along to the childlike chime along this enchanted path. This song feels like you are innocent again, exploring your first trip to a candy-coated funfair.
Foreign Places is an adorable romantic song about a bond that goes beyond words. Cioffi once was too afraid to perform in front of an audience and her shyness shines through in the passive tracks like this in her EP.
The final track on the EP is a remix of Slient Tears, by Ben Barter. It is an echo of the original version and a cute way to close the EP.
Little Lapin is an introvert and an observer, quietly reserved and stunningly bashful. Cioffi lets her personality shine through in this EP. Music is clearly coaxing this beautiful little lapin out of her burrow, into the fields of dreams and realities where Cioffi can expand her musical horizons.
Lucie Hill (formerly known as Little Lapin) is a Raglan based indie-pop singer/songwriter.