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The Soundtrack to Heartbreak

Love Letters Lost (Independent)
Moe Loughran

By Kevin Gibson

My oh my oh my oh my oh my, what a voice this girl has. Oh my. Oh my. And the only thing stronger than her rich, creamy voice is her ability to grab your heart and soul in song. In fact, I'd almost go so far as to say Love Letters Lost is the definitive soundtrack to heartbreak itself.

Loughran, who was the 2003 winner of the 2003 Coca-Cola New Music Award and who subsequently performed on the American Music Awards, has been churning out good rock tunes like this for seven or eight years, inexplicably remaining relatively unknown down in Nashville. But perhaps not since the gem "Hey Michael," from her debut EP, has she struck such a heartfelt chord with her music.

"Cold in Nashville" is a mere warm-up for the pop beauty that is "Thunder and Lightning," setting the stage for what's to come. The spare instrumentation in the latter song sets a brilliant for a double-tracked lead vocal that absolutely reaches the spine.

Even when singing the seemingly naïve chorus to "When It's Love It Don't Go Away," Loughran convinces us that she's feeling her pain at that very moment. The backing strings and her pleading voice make the listener believe it's all very, very real. Almost makes you believe that, indeed, when it's love, it doesn't go away.

But the best-kept secret on this nine-song disc is "Where Did You Go." This pop gem grabbed me immediately, because of its hook, because of its sentiment and because of its brutal honesty and pain. It's a relatively simple - but amazingly effective - song about waking up one day and finding that the person who was there, whom you loved so much it hurt, suddenly wasn't there, either emotionally or physically (or both). Loughran sings her heart out on this one: "I fell fast / You fell slow / And the world fell apart with one kiss under the stars / Where did you go? / I turned around and you weren't mine anymore."

From emotional soft rockers ("Every Time I Hear Your Name") to ballads ("Goodbye"), this album sums up a topic we all know better than we want to: heartbreak. It just so happens that Moe Loughran knows how to express it - and sing it - better than the rest of us.

Find out more at www.moerocks.com.