If the Chateau Marmont could sing. This would be it. Loren Kramar's

voice vibrates with the shameless hum of a room after a celebrity exits.

Ecstatic aspiration. Doubt. Proximity. Desire. The album Glovemaker is

about the skins we craft to be seen by the world, and Loren reminds us

that we are all in drag. All exposed. No matter what gloves we slip on.

I'm a slut for all my dreams, Loren Kramar sings with Patti Smith

brashness, I'm a whore for them, I've got more of them. Loren's lyrics

move like tinsel, shimmering bravely, then just as quickly, curling, fragile

under the spotlight. Loren has always been obsessed with fame. Not

with famous people, but with the electricity that perverts attention - the

crushing desire to be truly seen. And all of Loren, and this obsession, is

in this album. He grew up in the Valley, forced to hide his Barbies from

his father, so the closet was a gorgeous Spanish ranch house on a

gilded cul-de-sac crawling with celebrities. Naturally this gay boy wanted

to be a child star so his mother secretly shuttled him to tap and jazz

and figure skating lessons. I've got hands and feet to put in the

concrete, Loren croons, in "Hollywood Blvd," a song which clangs with

brawny bravado. But "Gay Angels" reminds us that Loren's infatuation

with stardom is inextricably linked with his queerness and his own

desire to live outside of fear. To be famous is to be out. To be known.

To be himself.

"Glovemaker has become a kind of code for art making itself. A glove

as a covering or mask that follows the contours of the life beneath it.

As a song and a symbol, this is an album about studying and tracing a

life - and then sharing what's there," Loren says. And his desire to share

truth feels urgent. To listen to Loren is to understand there is no choice;

the songs must tear through the air right now. This very second. I see

myself tearing and splitting and becoming a trampoline, he belts in "No

Man," breaking our hearts right alongside his. Part poet, part theatrical

diva, Loren loops together the tragedy of breathing on this planet,

because like Eartha Kitt or Cat Stevens, Loren is at his core - an

incredible story teller. This whole album is a shrine, a mantle atop a

blazing fire of life, spread with the memorabilia of Loren; all of the pain

and lust dazzling on unabashed view.

This is a songwriter's album. Loren's lyrics are all his, and you feel it

with every bright, Maraschino-cherry-like word that falls from his lips.

Like a lover, You scream and I shatter, I hit like a hammer, Loren sings.

And we get to feel what Loren feels. We live in his brain, riding his

genre bending emotions, on a wave of modern pop. And the songs lift,

they are anthems of belief, "Hollywood Blvd," "I'm a Slut," "Euphemism,"

"Gay Angels," are all odes to triumphing over the corroding powers of

fear and doubt. And on this ride, Loren's voice is the guard rail, ever

eager to stretch and transform, belting, talk-singing, multiplying, keeping

us safe.

Glovemaker slaps and soars. The album is an ecstatic overture to love

and loneliness, to dreams and promises, to everything Los Angeles

dangles. Buckle up. Loren knows how to craft space, how to move us

through darkened bars, strobing arenas, beige carpeted bungalows and

yellow lit highways. How do you like LA? Loren asks. I hope you love it.