Bathe me in the bloody river! Lucid, by Raveena is a journey of growth, strength, and self-love seduction. Lucid is Raveena’s first album, and was independently released in 2019. Raveena Aurora is a child of diaspora; growing up in Queens, NYC, after her parents fled India in the anti-Sikh Riots of 1984. Openly bisexual, Raveena wants her experimental R&B-jazz music to create a safe, and honey-sweet space for all womxn. She tenderly explores the crossroads of identity in her independently released music, marrying her queer and South Asian identities.
Every track on Lucid carries you to a new independent visceral moment, thus making for tricky work picking my top three tracks. However, in order to write an on-time and above mediocre-recc, I managed to hastily select some. “Stronger” is my favourite from the album, never failing to remind me that I truly am my own magnificence. My holiness was never doubted in this lulling and silky awakening. “Mama” speaks to Raveena’s mother’s evolving resiliency and femininity, as an immigrant woman and wife in America – an ode to what is given up. And “Petal”, the final track of the album, offers a sense of renewal and rejuvenation, in the ever-changing journey that is healing.
Overall, Lucid manages to bundle you up in silk, yet freeing you into the wind all at once.