Ana Luna – Tainted Silhouettes Album Review

Ethereal singer-songwriter Ana Luna reveals her debut album, Tainted Silhouettes. The 9-track record features past singles including “Dance in a Trance,” “Daddy’s Empire,” “Can We Pretend We Just Met At A Bar?,” and “Bleeding Pen,” alongside five brand-new songs. The album title is fitting for a record that is dark, melancholic, poetic and beautiful, both musically and lyrically.

Words by Kate South

Tainted Silhouettes is the debut record from Ana Luna. The nine-track record features past singles including “Dance in a Trance,” “Daddy’s Empire,” “Can We Pretend We Just Met At A Bar?,” and “Bleeding Pen,” alongside five brand-new songs. The album title is fitting for a record that is dark, melancholic, poetic and beautiful, both musically and lyrically. Born in Ukraine and raised in Paris, Ana Luna is now based in Los Angeles, a natural storyteller whose music seamlessly blends cinematic grandeur with unflinching honesty.

Discussing the creative process, Ana Luna explained how, “When it came time to produce the songs, I had one goal: to make them raw but cinematic.” The opening track, “Fairy Tales”, achieves just that. The album begins with atmospheric vocalisations followed by hypnotic arpeggiated piano chords amidst a wall of synths, grounding the bass of the texture. The track is a fitting way of setting the dark, shadowy tone for the record. There is something so atmospheric and ethereal in the production of this track, complementing the velvety alto of Ana Luna’s vocals beautifully. The track is played out by the piano, taking over the texture, accompanied by plucked pizzicato strings. The classically inspired accompaniment establishes the cinematic feel of the album, inviting the listener into Ana Luna’s sound world.

“Dance in a Trance” introduces an alt-rock turn, with a distorted guitar contrasting classical strings of the previous song. This darker track features some Duffy and Adele influences, with production reminiscent of Paloma Faith’s “Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful.” The track is poetic: vivid, expressive lyrics combined with Ana Luna’s vocals offer a richness of sound beyond her years. “Dance in a Trance” is a highlight of the album, and it’s unsurprising that it was selected as a single, accompanied by a stunning music video. The visuals help to build the melancholic world of Ana Luna, whilst showing off her impressive acting skills. When it came to producing the album, Ana Luna “wanted the music to feel like a movie, like your emotions, which are intangible, had suddenly become something you could touch”. This tactility is reflected in the choice of instrumentation of the album, from the plucked violin strings to the strummed guitar to the blanket-like smothering of the synths.

The bass-heavy production gives the biting track “Daddy’s Empire” a sultry depth, with the melodic guitar line evoking a timeless, moody ballad. There is a palpable anger to the track, as Ana Luna drawls out the refrain “I give. you take, you take”. The song is an honest reflection on what it’s like dating a manchild, who, no matter how much you try to help them, simply won’t help themself. Contrasting the initial run of alt-rock inspired tracks, we see the artistic range of Ana Luna, as the sound world pivots into a dream pop landscape for the fourth track, “Same Page”. The synth arpeggios provide the driving force of the song, with Ana Luna’s voice ringing out against sustained strings and a kick drum beat, evoking an ethereal, otherworldly soundscape.

The most accomplished track of the album for me is “Can We Pretend We Just Met At A Bar?”. The song showcases the peak of Ana Luna’s songwriting. The melody, sitting slightly higher than the previous tracks, allows Ana Luna’s full vocal capabilities to shine. A harp-like backing lilts its way through the ballad, accompanying heartfelt lyrics about wanting to capture that moment of first falling in love, when you seem to forget previous failed relationships and have not yet felt the doubt of whether the current one will survive. Musically and lyrically, this song is stunning and features a vocal highlight of the album as the strings drive us toward a beautifully belted note at the end of the bridge, followed by dramatic cymbal crashes throughout the final verse. If you listen to one song from the album, make it this one. You’ll be hooked. 

“Bleeding Pen” brings a more laid back tempo with a reduced texture, focusing on piano, drums and guitar. The instrumental outro builds the texture back up and features solos on both piano and guitar, transitioning us back into the more rock-inspired side of Ana Luna’s musical style. No doubt the instrumental section would be epic to hear at a live set, and it provided an interlude for the album. This rocky sound continues into “Burn You”, a laid-back ballad. “I’ll Keep My Promise” offers the edgiest lyrics of the album, Ana Luna recalling how her dad warned her not to let the world “turn her into something [she’s] not”. The harsh words are contrasted with a high-pitched, twinkling piano accompaniment. There is something immensely private about this song, with the reduced texture giving the sense she is holding back from telling us what this “promise” exactly is, though it threatens to burst out during an instrumental swell on the second chorus. Talking about the emotions behind the album, Ana Luna explained, “While I hope they resonate with many, they’re especially for the deep feelers — the ones who look inward, who want to understand, and who find themselves in the act of feeling.” While not as outwardly emotional in some of the other tracks musically, the candid lyricism of Ana Luna is indicative of the thoughtfulness of her songwriting, as the listener can reflect on their own “promises” they’ve made, and perhaps broken, in the pursuit of young love.

Completing the album is “Love Virgin”, a cabaret-esque piano ballad. During the chorus, Ana Luna sings, “Uncertainty she screws me over”, the lyrics exploring that doubt of whether she has ever truly been in love and reflecting on what it means to say “I love you”. This sentiment ties the album together; each song explores some form of love and relationships. Discussing the writing process for the album, Ana Luna confessed that  “Many of these songs weren’t written with a project in mind. They were simply me processing what I was feeling in real time”. However, through cinematic production and introspective lyrics, what emerges is a sonically cohesive album meditating on the lessons learnt through relationships; the highs, the lows and the emerging desire to finally find and embrace love. While the songs are deeply personal, there are universal themes woven throughout the record that everyone can relate to, told through vividly poetic lyrics that invite us into the celestial sound world of Ana Luna.

The album captures Ana Luna’s transformation into a fully realised artist with a voice and vision that is uniquely her own. Tainted Silhouettes is both an arrival and a release: a cinematic expression of what it means to find freedom in feeling. A formidable debut album with alt-rock edge and velvety vocals, Ana Luna is just getting started.

Listen to Tainted Silhouettes on all streaming platforms now

Photo by  Noah Hoffman (@conversingwithaliens)