La Luz

On News of the Universe. (2024), the latest full-length from California rock band La Luz, guitarist and songwriter Shana Cleveland learns to embrace a changing world with unconditional love. Sonically, the record is all urgency. On what might be La Luz’s most brutal record to date, songs trip over themselves as if trying to outrun the apocalypse. But for every moment of fear, there is one of pure ecstasy and a powerful sense of openness permeates the record, at least partially due to the fact that it is made entirely by women.

La Luz are so reliably great that it has perhaps led people to overlook how pioneering the band really are: women of color in indie music forging their own path by following their own artistic star into galaxies beyond current musical trends, always led by an earnest belief in the cosmic power of love and a great riff.