“Best New Music” – Rolling Stone (March ’24 and May ’25)
“a cunning crooner and composer. This album had me instantly with its ambitious originality and shrewd songwriting, singing and arrangements” – Jazz Wax
“Smoldering, sophisticated jazz-pop” – KUTX
“smart lyrics that seek to pierce the heart of darkness … rich melodicism and sophistication” – No Depression
“ a salve of nostalgia mixed for modern anxiety, a balm between Scott Walker and Richard Hawley… an immaculately suave debut album” – Austin Chronicle
“A Little Touch of L.C. Franke in The Night?… effervescent, ornately orchestrated instantly likable…Harp glissandos, sweeping, swelling strings, whispering flutes—arranger John Mills hits all of the sentimental orchestral cues buoying Franke’s gentle, uplifting lyrical sentiments sung with sweet but not saccharine sincerity. Franke knows how to turn the chords in his emotional favor.” – Tracking Angle
Easy listening for anxious times, torch songs for a world on fire, orchestral pop for the algorithm age: this is the twilit milieu of L.C. Franke, whose timelessly sentimental music builds a bridge between twentieth-century nostalgia and our modern alienation. Franke’s debut album, Still in Bloom, was released to widespread acclaim in July 2024, earning accolades for its ten tracks of pure mood-indigo music inspired by the jazz-club savoir faire of artists like Frank Sinatra, Scott Walker, and Ella Fitzgerald. Hailed as “smoldering and sophisticated” (KUTX), and “effervescent, ornately orchestrated, and instantly likeable” (Tracking Angle), with “smart lyrics that seek to pierce the heart of darkness” (No Depression), Still in Bloom has been highlighted by Rolling Stone as “Music You Should Know” ahead of sold-out live shows in New York, Los Angeles, and London. The deft balance of Franke’s barstool croon, smoldering against a backdrop of woodwind trills and string quartet swells, is a musical tonic that pairs equally well with gin and general malaise—light on the ears, heavy on the heart.
The origin of L.C. Franke lies inside the dusty record collection owned by his grandmother—and namesake—Elsie Franke. As a kid visiting Elsie’s homes in Brooklyn and Fort Lauderdale, Franke grew up surrounded by the sounds of Glen Miller, Blossom Dearie, and Jimmy Durante. It was around this time that his own performing career started in earnest, with the young Franke singing Neil Diamond and Barry Manilow down at the VFW Hall. Years later, while at a crossroads in his musical career, one that was only exacerbated by COVID-19 lockdowns, Franke found himself rediscovering those records and his early musical roots, and finding comfort and empowerment in those old songs. In the music of his past, he saw a future.
The product of that reawakening, Still in Bloom, was recorded live in the room with an orchestra over just three weekend sessions. Featuring arrangements by John Mills, a professor of jazz studies who’s worked with the likes of Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles, it is an album that is both musically rich and emotionally direct. On “You’re Not Alone,” Franke takes your hand and leads you from a shadowy alley toward a shimmering skyline that’s swirling with flutes and the simple reassurance, “Worst case / It’ll pass.” The sardonic tango “Wish the World” underscores its tale of a soured relationship with spy-movie violins and vibraphone. And the album finds its bruised thematic heart on the title track, where a pensive piano melody and wintry strings provide the stripped-down bed for Franke’s late-night ruminations on the everyday struggle to locate resilience amid the ruins.
These are spellbinding, smoke-gets-in-your-eyes songs, rendered as sharp as a custom-cut suit, evoking lonely subway rides past abandoned automats, and those halcyon days before the Brill Building housed a CVS. They invite you to let L.C. Franke visit you in your own darkened corners, and guide you back into the light.
Since the release of Still in Bloom, L.C. Franke has been relentlessly touring both the U.S. and UK, playing his own sold-out headlining shows and sharing stages with artists as diverse as The Walkmen, Mark Eitzel, and Swamp Dogg, all while enjoying the good fortune to be accompanied by some of the most accomplished musicians and string quartets the world has to offer. He is currently prepping a new singles collection titled Southern Bloom, an Americana-tinged collaboration with the neo-traditional country band Silverada, as well as his second full-length album.