Emily Lubitz, the entrancing frontwoman of Melbourne folk-pop darlings Tinpan Orange, is the epitome of a ‘Gold Dust Woman’- authentic, shimmering, and bewitchingly poetic. An acclaimed virtuoso with over a decade of experience in the industry, Lubitz’ most recent track Like I Do marks the golden debut of her eminent solo career.
In collaboration with Freyja Hooper on drums and Winona Miller on bass, Lubitz envisions her enigmatic solo act as hazily intimate, transposing simple emotions into sonically arresting compositions. Her latest single Like I Do is appreciatively tender, mediating on how the simplest human experiences change us as people.
Lubitz muses, “When a relationship spans many years, it contains many lifetimes– this song is about looking back to when things started and how different it is now. How our lives turn and curve and the common denominator is the person we have shared it with. Actually, our partner changes and curves too and so do we, so maybe the common denominator is love.”
While the themes of the track deal specifically with love, Lubitz sees this evolution as a lifelong process– “From being young musicians in Melbourne, drinking bourbon and pretending we know everything, to being the parents of three children and realizing we know very little, it’s a big range. And we are still learning.”
Like I Do aches with a certain regret that is both innocently soft, and bitterly reminiscent. The casual strum of the guitars in combination with Lubitz’ vocals seem to float on air– they present something more tangible than a dream, as if we were running through our own memories, wondering if what we experienced was real or idealized.
Teeming with an opulent sound, Lubitz’ vocals feel contemplative as if she’s questioning the cause of the bittersweet yearning she feels, while also welcoming the reminder that the love she felt was real. Lyrically, she illuminates raw emotions that are unnervingly relatable, such as the feeling of endless naive bliss that accompanies the beginning of relationships – But it was different when we were younger / We didn’t know it’d last this long / We were drunk and full of luster / Now we’ve got these blue eyed songs.
Lubitz's wistful emergence is accented by a distinct sense of musical playfulness that encourages a state of lightheartedness, keeping the otherwise sentimental track from sounding too dismal. Having performed on some of the world’s largest stages with equally monumental artists, Lubitz has nourished a spellbinding grandeur that gives her a larger than life demeanor– an experience you don’t want to miss on her upcoming Australian dates this July.
By Cassidy Copenheaver