Luna Carina – “Prague” Feat. Nekane

Luna Carina – “Prague” Feat. Nekane – Single Review

“’Prague’ is a haunting, slow-burning ballad that drifts through memory like fog across the Vltava.  Written by Jacob Smith, the track is a deeply personal reflection on a past lover from the city itself both a person and a place immortalized in longing.”

And there you have it.  Goodnight folks, it’s been a slice!

Alright…maybe I’ll say a little bit more.  To be completely fair to me, I wouldn’t have had any of those details on hand unless the information was sent in to me…all that sounds like stuff that only Jacob from Luna Carina could have known.  That’s the beauty of music & art though…if you handle it the right way, then you end up with wonderful memento that will always remind you of the time you got to spend with a special someone, visiting a place you love, or being inspired by something…it’s really a great way to document what’s important to us, and as we do, it creates an even larger diary of the society we share.

So…”Prague” – what do I think and how do I feel about it?

Oh I have opinions.  I always do, otherwise I wouldn’t be in this business of musical commentary.

Let’s start with the positives.  It’d be pretty hard to find too many faults here, given that the music from Jacob carries such a magnificent beauty to it, and the performance from guest-star Nekane does a pretty remarkable job with the vocals as well.  Between these two things alone, they’ve satisfied what most listeners are looking for when it comes to what’s coming through their speakers, and give “Prague” their best efforts on a professional level in that regard.  The production is high quality overall, the mix is on target…lots of good things going on overall.  To me and my ears, I’d tell ya that the music is the main star of the show when it comes to this particular track, and that when it’s at its fullest, you’ll find Luna Carina achieves its strongest results.  It’s structured with a fair amount of dynamics in that verse-chorus-verse type of way that sees the main hooks bring additional energy to “Prague,” right where you’d expect to find it in that typical way singles are designed to deliver.  Around the 2:20 mark, from my perspective, you’ll find “Prague” shift into its biggest highlights, with the Spoken Word vocals in the background coming alive, the violin becoming more pronounced in the mix, and additional vocalizations from Nekane having a great moment as well, however brief it might be before the chorus hooks come back in.  From a songwriting aspect, this is textbook stuff built & designed to make an impact on the mainstream, which is ultimately a positive thing as well.  If you want your music to be heard by the masses, eventually you gotta find a way to bend things towards a compromise between making the art you wanna make and the listeners ears out there potentially consuming it.  In that respect, I feel like Luna Carina has gone about things in the right way, and that bend towards a more mainstream sound has seemed like it’s been the goal for Jacob as he’s progressed with his career in this collaborative band.

Patience is still required though…I don’t know if I’m fully convinced that Luna Carina has hit its full stride yet.  I’m still hearing potential more than I’m hearing complete stability…I’m still hearing a band that’s searching for its sound more than a band that knows precisely what it wants to be about.  Which is fine!  Let’s be real here, Luna Carina is about three years into its existence…and not everything just happens overnight.  In some ways, I think “Prague” is a step in the right direction – the chorus of “Prague” is performed with resounding confidence for the most part, and Luna Carina sounds really sure of itself in this moment…maybe even more than it should be.  I’ll be real with ya…I’m sure “Prague” is probably a very nice place to visit, but the name of the Czech Republic’s capital city ain’t exactly one that’s filled with the kind of phonetic beauty to match, you feel me?  So while the sentiment itself is solid, it’s still a monumental task for Nekane to make “Prague” sound as beautiful as the lyrics are trying to make it become…it’s a one-syllable, kind of weighted word that sinks heavy whenever you sing or say it, which essentially puts it at odds with the airy, dreamier vibes of what Jacob is creating through the music.  As for the rest of the lyricism, don’t get me wrong…I know these words mean a ton to Jacob, especially considering what they symbolize to him.  I’m not trying to take anything away from that, but at the same time, I’m not hearing a ton of groundbreaking evolution in his work in that regard, or anything that we haven’t already heard to some degree in some way, shape, or form in all kinds of other music out there.

You’ll find Luna Carina described as Indie Dream Pop…and I’m also not quite sure that’s really what this is.  I’d put a song like “Prague” in the same category that I’d put something like Vanessa Carlton’s music in.  Obviously that’s great company to be keeping, she’s had a massive career…but make no mistake, we’re talkin’ about less of what we consider to be the Dream Pop sound, in favor of something that is much more of a dedicated Pop design, with a tinge of Adult Contemporary if I’m being real with ya.  Again, nothing wrong with that – it’s all about what Jacob wants to create, and if drifting closer to something with crossover sound that puts him within the realm of AC, then hey, so be it – there are tons of fans of that kind of music all around the globe.  For myself personally, it’s the magic that Luna Carina creates in the shortest burst between 2:20–2:50 in the bridge that makes the biggest impact, with the majority of its allure actually found more precisely in between the 2:40–2:50 mark.  That doesn’t mean there aren’t other highlights or things you could potentially enjoy more yourself – you might very well feel the low-key beginning is the song’s best moment…I wouldn’t dispute that it’s got a gorgeous opening to it, or that the verses have a real appeal to them as well.  In my personal opinion, Nekane gets a bit more freedom to make the beauty in the verses stand out more, because they’re not weighed down by having to have the name “Prague” worked in there, like the hooks of the chorus have to juggle.

So…yeah…no lie, I spun this as much as I could in the short time that I’ve had this single for, and I never really came around to “Prague” being the right word to build a song’s main hooks around.  Again, no disrespect to the city, I’m sure it’s a wonderful place, and I’m sure based on what we’re hearing in this song, that it means something special to Jacob as well…so don’t get me wrong, I understand WHY he’d want to include this detail and how important it would be for its accuracy to his real-life experiences.  That being said, sometimes we’ve even gotta make weird compromises in those areas, as songwriters.  I think you can hear moments where Nekane hits singing “Prague” with an uplifting emphasis, and there are times where the word and its lack of flexibility seems to have it come across colder than you might want it to feel in the context of the rest of the lyrics surrounding it.  For as many outstanding and truly beautiful elements that there are in the music, my real worry here is that Luna Carina has ended up creating something that’s a lot less identifiable to the band specifically, and seems a little like something that’s somewhat been done many times before.  It’s a stellar example of how creating a solidly executed tune can still fall a bit short of the mark…I don’t think the main hooks of “Prague” are gonna hold up for long on repeat spins, and it almost feels like the balanced chill of the delivery is missing a bit of the spark it needs, despite the professionalism on display from both Nekane and Luna Carina combined.  To me, this is one of those moments where a songwriter has created something that means a ton to them on a personal level, but it’s not necessarily going to connect with listeners in that same profound way.  It’s nothing to get bent out of shape about…believe me when I tell ya, it happens all the time.  Writers pour their hearts and souls into what they do, and no matter how much effort they put in or how much it means to them, it’s still tough to make it mean just as much to other people.  Which is honestly quite natural if you think about it.  I think you’ve gotta take the wins where you can find’em, and there are still plenty of things to be admired in “Prague” – it might wear out quicker than intended, but it’s still enjoyable to listen to, and it’s another strong step in the direction that it seems Jacob would like to take the music of Luna Carina.

Find out more about Luna Carina from the official page at Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/lunacarinamusic

If you dig what we do at sleepingbagstudios & want to be part of the madness, by all means click here to be featured on these pages of ours!