Luster (album)


Luster is the second studio album by Irish musician Maria Somerville. It was released on 25 April 2025 by 4AD in vinyl, CD and digital formats.

Background

Succeeding Somerville's 2019 debut project, All My People, Luster consists of twelve songs with a total runtime of thirty-eight minutes and twenty seconds. The album incorporates elements of shoegaze, post-punk, and ambient music, and centers on the theme of homecoming. Somerville wrote and recorded the album in Connemara.
"Projections" was released as the album's first single on 30 September 2024. It was followed by the release of the second single, "Garden", on 19 February 2025. The third single, "Spring", was released on 23 April 2025.

Reception

Paul Simpson of AllMusic described the album as "an accomplished, affecting work that finds strength and clarity through introspection and forgiveness." Shaad D'Souza of the Guardian wrote in his review of Luster, "these songs reveal themselves to be unusually swollen with texture and detail: harps twinkle like broken glass and baggy breakbeats reverberate widely, seemingly recorded through a bedroom wall."
Pitchfork rated the album 8.5 out of ten and stated, "The Irish musician's gossamer dream pop is both mythic and real, a wild and ancient landscape in which her own figure is just barely perceptible." New Noise remarked, "Luster's strength lies in its ability to explain the unexplainable; to emphasize a feeling only one's heart is able to comprehend—without words and without regret", and rated the album four out of five.
Hot Press assigned the album a rating of eight out of ten, calling it "a terrific album from an artist of genuine substance." The Skinny gave Luster a rating of four stars out of five, noting that "On her 4AD debut, Maria Somerville redefines dreampop, goth, shoegaze and more, stitching colour into a tapestry of blacks, whites and greys."
Caroline Nieto of Paste gave Luster a score of 8.0 out of 10, writing that "The soft, subliminal world of Maria Somerville’s Luster is one of my favorite places music has taken me this year."

Personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal.