Lauv Heals His Inner Child on Irresistible Sophomore Album, ‘All 4 Nothing’

Pop music got a little more lively today.

San Franciso-hailing singer/songwriter Lauv has dropped his sophomore album, All 4 Nothing, which follows his 2020 LP debut, How I’m Feeling. The new 13-track record is Lauv—born Ari Leff—at his most creatively uninhibited. Each track features Lauv’s straight-up storytelling, which often emerged from the artist’s ability to freestyle lyrics on a mic while making the record. Oh, and those pop hooks? Irresistible.

Standout tracks include the nostalgic “Kids Are Born Stars,” the euphoric love song and title track “All 4 Nothing (I’m So In Love),” and the pensive “Hey Ari.” In a recent conversation with American Songwriter, Lauv added that “Bad Trip” is well worth the listen. (We agree.) Also in our conversation with the singer, he revealed exactly what it took to create All 4 Nothing.

Read a sneak peek of that conversation below, which will officially debut in full in the September/October issue of the American Songwriter magazine. And, listen to All 4 Nothing, out now, HERE.

“Lauv’s recent album, All 4 Nothing, dropped in August 2022 as ‘the most raw version’ of himself. It’s the 13-track result of Lauv rediscovering his confidence. ‘I started going into the studio and making these songs that were super different for me and having this different process that felt so transcendent of the mind. I felt like I just wasn’t thinking at all,’ Lauv says. ‘I started becoming obsessed with that process of trusting yourself… and with the idea of confidence.’

This line of thinking led Lauv to remember himself as a child and all the freedoms that come with being blissfully ignorant. Lauv set out to capture that youthfulness and heal his inner child. Using the meditative practice of inner child visualization, Lauv worked through the questions, ‘Who was I back then? How am I different now? How can I get back those parts of me? What parts of that younger version of me still need to be healed so that I can today be a more confident person?’

It was a wild journey that led Lauv to songs like ‘Kids Are Born Stars,’ a delightful, retrospective conversation between a young Lauv and the singer/songwriter today. Other songs on the record fall into the category of honest-to-goodness love songs. The title track, in particular, swirls with a sweetness that’s difficult to match. Then, in the middle of the record, Lauv punctures the honeyed lyricism with the track ‘Hey Ari.’”

Photo Credit: Lauren Dunn / The Oriel