Names are tricky. It’s bad enough being lumbered with a moniker that you can’t shake, but even the names we choose for ourselves aren’t guaranteed to be surefire, love-at-first-sight winners in the ears and eyes of strangers. My first reaction to a band called Lion Babe was a head scratch and knitted eyebrows. But I’ve come round – the kitsch, almost childishly fun name is exactly right for them and the music they make.
Lion Babe – made up of vocalist Jillian Hervey and producer Lucas Goodman – formed in 2012 after they met at a New York party. The source of their name? Nothing more complex than the fact that he’s a Leo, and she has big (and I mean big) honey blond hair. The first song of theirs I heard was the Nina Simone-sampling Jump Hi – one of those summer songs that follow you around, streaming out of shops in snippets.
Their sound is… mixed up. It’s neo-soul meets old soul, meets disco and light funk, swirled around with modern R&B and experimental artpop. Influences clash and mingle, and while the result is not always effortlessly smooth, it’s always interesting. And married to their look (silent, too-cool-for-school Lucas; startlingly pretty Jillian), it becomes something even more compelling. Jillian’s lithe dancing makes me want to be more limber (witness the high kick in the ridiculous video for Treat Me Like Fire).
Their latest mixtape, called Sun Joint, feels like their most cohesive project. It’s dreamy, with spare percussion, confident sampling and elements of spoken word. Let this be the summer of Lion Babe.
