Their new tape LOR4LIFE is a fascinating new link in their chain. The seven-track project has the cracked MacBook screen charm of early emo-rap like GothBoiClique with a ravier tint that’s far less deferential to its inspirations. Lor flexes a classic trap-friendly flow on the project’s eponymous opening track, but their voice is hidden behind layers of digital fog in a beat from producers i_hear_static and cloak. Despite the song’s lo-fi sleekness, it has the addictive vibe and the stakes of a hotboxed freestyle in a Wal-Mart parking lot. “Come on come on, tell me what the hate’s for,” they rap as synths glitter and bounce around her words, “Callin’ me a manic pixie dream Lor / Talkin’ lots of shit ‘cause you’re hella bored / Always rep myself ‘cause I know Imma soar.”
And while the Kreayshawn vibes are always welcome, it’s when Lor leans on their talent for melodies that things really stick. On songs like the chilled-out “growth spurt” and the gothic ambient-infused “dark,” Lor brings an avant-pop sensibility to their flows and turns their syllables into colors rather than portions of words. The project hits an emotional peak with the songs “intertwined” — which sounds like an 808s and Heartbreak-obsessed Liz Harris collaborating with Working on Dying — and “twice,” where Lor’s voice is sublimated into the beat’s stormy, chrome-colored atmosphere.