Ashe – “Lasso The Moon”

Ashe has released The Girl Of Your Dreams, and I'm already certain this is an album I'll want to spend a lifetime with. Eleven songs, an entire world to explore, and far too many details to absorb before committing anything to the permanent record. But we've already fallen for “Stop The Wedding!” and "Funeral," and “Lasso The Moon” is making an equally persuasive case for immediate attention. At this rate, I'm going to need additional lifetimes.

There's a glorious theatricality to everything Ashe is doing in this era. The old Hollywood glamour, the exaggerated romance, the immaculate styling. Every scene feels seconds away from an audience being instructed to applaud, gasp, or clutch their pearls. I keep expecting the camera to pull back and reveal a bustling production crew, someone adjusting a spotlight, and a director shouting for one more take. The remarkable part is how thoroughly Ashe invites us onto the set. We're in costume, we've learned the choreography, and we're all getting paid in champagne.

“Lasso The Moon” sounds like it belongs in this Technicolor fantasy. The piano sets everything in motion, strings sweep into the picture, and the harmonies keep gathering until the whole thing feels ready for a full-cast finale. Meanwhile, Ashe delivers romantic demands with the confidence of someone ordering another cocktail. She insists she's easygoing, then requests that her beloved capture the moon, walk through fire, and remain completely unbothered by the effort. Reasonable. Somewhere in the middle of all this, the music starts feeling like Pleasantville after everybody discovers sex. The colors come flooding in, the neighbors start behaving scandalously, and somebody in the control room has abandoned the script.

Ashe has said the song came from a happy, lovestruck place, and you can hear the delight in every exaggerated flourish. There's a delicious self-awareness to the whole performance, from the playful vocal asides to the way the arrangement practically curtsies after delivering another grand romantic gesture. She's having a marvelous time being the leading lady, and I see no reason we shouldn't enjoy our supporting roles.

The Girl Of Your Dreams has barely begun its life outside Ashe's imagination, and already it feels like a world worth getting lost in. We'll have plenty of time to explore the rest. For now, I'm staying right here, waiting for someone to cue the orchestra and turn the lights up another shade.