A Loud Silence is the first studio album by the Portuguese singer-songwriter and producer Renato Freitas, under the pseudonym Lizzy's Husband. It was recorded during 2013.

A Loud Silence
Studio album by
ReleasedDecember 11, 2013 (2013-12-11)
Recorded2013
Genreelectronica, industrial, ambient
Length41:23
LabelMimi Records
ProducerRenato Freitas
Lizzy's Husband chronology
A Loud Silence
(2013)
Violent Stomach
(2015)
Singles from A Loud Silence
  1. "Petrichor"
    Released: August 26, 2013
  2. "A Place for the Ghosts"
    Released: October 31, 2013

Two singles were released from the album, "Petrichor" and "A Place for the Ghosts", with a music video for the first produced by Freitas, premiering on the national TV channel, RTP, music show Poplusa.[1]

The album was released digitally under a Creative Commons license (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)). In December 2015, Bandcom created an online poll, "Best Portuguese Album of the Year", in which the album was included and nominated.[2]

Album information

edit

The album is primarily an electronic oriented album, with industrial, ambient and dance elements in some songs. Lyrically, the album leads with themes such as anxiety, death, self-destruction, low self esteem and anger management issues, with Freitas saying that the lyrics were written when he "moved from Guimarães to Porto and it was socially hard to adapt to it. I guess that's why the album has such a dark mood in it".[3]

On the label's press release, Jorge Carvalho described it as "finding balance in the less stable madness of its structure, but stays true to the essence of the project. An album that, despite the immaturity, rhythm and cruelty in it, which transports us to an environment of great vibes, does not convey a happy life in the birth of this project, due to the dark lyrics of the songs. [The album] portrays nothing more, nothing less, than a less good phase of the producer’s personal life. A silence that, despite loud and intense, doesn’t seem to escape from a physical body to the outside." Musicians such as Trent Reznor, from Nine Inch Nails, and Björk have been cited as major influences on the album's production and musical direction.[4]

The album was entirely recorded in Renato's house, using a laptop and a microphone,[4] thus the sound presents a very "lo-fi" characteristic. In a 2017 interview with esQrever, Freitas said that music was the key factor that helped him coming out as transgender, citing "A Place for the Ghosts" and "The Weight of the World" as songs that reflect his struggles with gender identity, describing the first as an "inner battle between genders".[3]

Track listing

edit

Track listing attained from the label's website.[4]

All tracks are written by Renato Freitas

No.TitleLength
1."A Loud Silence"0:40
2."Riding a Dead Horse"4:34
3."Turn the Soul Inside Out"1:12
4."A Place for the Ghosts"4:19
5."What I Am Not"5:18
6."Nightmare"1:12
7."Decay"1:52
8."Sharpen Edges"3:54
9."Soils"1:30
10."The Floor"0:48
11."Morning Undertow"4:18
12."Petrichor"4:57
13."A Cold Ending"2:58
14."Dog of the Year" (a re-recorded and reworked version, called "Low", was released on Blooms Every May in 2016.)3:52
Total length:41:23

Personnel

edit
  • Renato Freitas – production, compositions, lyrics, vocals, keyboards and art direction.

References

edit
  1. ^ "Main page for Poplusa's archives and episodes" (in Portuguese).
  2. ^ ""Qual o melhor disco nacional de 2015?" poll now closed" (in Portuguese).
  3. ^ a b "Lizzy's Husband – É necessário sentir as coisas de maneira diferente". esQrever (in Portuguese). June 20, 2017.
  4. ^ a b c "Lizzy's Husband's debut album on the label's website". Mimi Records. December 11, 2013. Archived from the original on June 25, 2017. Retrieved June 20, 2017.