Laura Mam’s debut solo EP, Meet Me In The Rain, is catchy and uncontrived
Laura Mam. You’ve probably seen one of her clever videos or heard her band, The Like Mes. Her Youtube channel has verged on virality and she maintains a homely appeal by merging intimate live recordings with higher-budget productions. Through her inviting music and inspirational outlook, Mam has found the eye of the masses and yet also cultivated a community among Cambodians, Cambodian-Americans and expats.
Her excellent and relieving first solo EP, Meet Me In The Rain, is now poised for release at the perfect moment in her career. The five tracks meet the power of polished production with innovation in language and local Cambodian culture. Mam’s music successfully pulls off what many have been waiting to see: new Khmer music that’s fresh and progressive, retaining its integrity by capturing part of the spirit making up modern Cambodia.
Mam is on her way to producing tracks that fuse old and new, Cambodian and international. The five songs, including the title track, feel distinctly American in their structure, but the lyrics are Khmer and the music features traditional Cambodian instrumentation, including gongs and the roneat (similar to the xylophone). Being a diaspora artist, it makes sense that Mam’s light-hearted love songs resemble a space away from Cambodia – and yet they are distinctly Cambodian.
The EP opens like a scene from a movie. Part hopeful-sexy, part longing-reflection intro track Soben Sni (‘Little Black Polka Dot’) moves us through lyrical repetition, layered ripples and the urge of layered vocal tracks. Mun Tuk Pleang (‘Meet Me In The Rain’) melts Mam’s vocals into the soft tweaks of fanciful electric guitar, a crying that will wrench your heart as Mam calls out: “Kiss me in the rain, kiss me in the rain. Love me in the rain, love me in the rain.” Light and fluffy these songs are not, but they are also not overblown. Their pain, transformation, love and redemption are tolerable. Perhaps because you’ve never heard love songs quite like these.
After an upbeat Sin Chngai (‘The Distance Is No Fair’) and a soothing Kou Preang Veasna (‘Four Of Hearts’), we reach Chenchean Boncham Chat (‘Take This Leap’). A Khmer-lyric profession running parallel to many songs played during your favourite college open mic, but it’s unlike the countless stream of Western singer-songwriters churning out the same songs: Mam’s song is catchy and uncontrived.
Each of the tracks on Meet Me In The Rain present degrees of complacency, contemplation and longing. Love has never felt better through post-rainy-season listening sessions. As mellow as it is enthralling, hardly imposing or pretentious, Mam’s music feels right at home here in Phnom Penh.
But the EP is an EP and, thus, feels short. Five songs leaves you wanting more, wanting epic instrumentals and lengthy lyric confessionals, pronounced collaborations and experimental flirtations. Fortunately, Mam starts work on her next album in the New Year – a release worth waiting for, and for now we wait in the rain.
Meet Me In The Rain, by Laura Mam, is available now on iTunes and Amazon.