Louise Confessions

Confession; Borderline; Manifesting; It Ain't Love; Only Dancer; Follow Me; Get Into It; Love Me More; Don't Kill My Vibe; Just Like That.

Label: Lil' Lou Records

It might be fair to say that not many would have anticipated that former Eternal member Louise would be releasing her fifth solo album almost 30 years after her debut, Naked, reached #7 on the UK album charts. While Eternal were one of the most celebrated acts on the UK scene, Louise left the group after one studio album and has since spoken of the loneliness she felt within the unit. Her solo success, in the long term, has been far too undercelebrated. Not only did she release three striking albums between 1996 and 2000, which were commercially successful, but they also highlighted her strengths as both a songwriter and a vocalist.

While she left on a pop high, releasing the epic single Pandora's Kiss in 2003 (from an as-yet-unreleased album), to focus on motherhood, Louise never quite disappeared from public awareness due to judging and presenting roles throughout the years. However, her loyal fanbase breathed a sigh of relief in 2020 when she finally returned to music with the absolutely sensational Heavy Love. A demonstration of her vocal strength and her lack of fear at confronting the personal on record, she laid the foundations for a total career resurrection. Despite releasing a Greatest Hits album with reworked classics, Louise finally delivers her fifth studio album, Confessions, half a decade later.

Confessions sees Louise working with a veritable who's who of pop-driven songwriters – Jon Shave, Anya Jones, Karen Poole, and MNEK – and has been touted by Louise as her most personal work to date. Ten songs strong, it is a brief album, but one that packs a punch. Having teased the album back in February, when Radio 2 premiered the lead single, Confession, it was clear that Louise's return was going to be sleek, fun and slightly cheeky electro-pop. While her biggest hits have been her largest pop numbers, she has clearly re-evaluated her voice as an artist and refined her sound to reflect who she is at 50, rather than recapturing who she was at 21.

Although Confession was a strong lead single, it was actually in the subsequent March release, Love Me More, that she uncovered the truth of what the record is really all about. This is an album that is all about finding who Louise is. Having raised two children, been through a very public divorce and moved on to new loves, all while re-finding her feet career-wise, it is notable that Louise is finally allowing herself to be the centre of her own universe. The pure pop bite of Love Me More is sheer brilliance and should have been a much bigger radio hit than it was, and even in the confines of this body of work, it shines bright as a real highlight.

However, it is not alone. Confessions is a well-written, well-produced and strikingly insightful pop rocket. While Borderline made for a decent single selection, there is no doubt that the R'n'B-tinged pop Manifesting has radio written all over it, although perhaps the more Sophie Ellis-Bextor-leaning quirky pop of Only Dancer would make for a more interesting choice. Yet it is in the euphoric dancefloor anthems Get Into It and Follow Me that Louise finds the tracks that join Love Me More as the real stand-out moments.

Confessions is a very different album from 1996's Naked and even more radically different from 2000's Woman In Me, but if you follow the throughline of her works from start to finish, each new album adds an interesting new layer. This is not reinvention; it is growth. Confessions is a beautifully delivered, joyous celebration of being true to yourself.