Philmont songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Will Lawrence has released his fifth album, Rooftops in the Centerfold. The album circles around Lawrence’s love interest, hovering between memory and reality. Holding a nostalgic touch throughout, the album is reminiscent of classic Labi Siffre, thriving in its radiant lyrics while emulating a calming tone throughout.
At its core, the record feels like a meditation on love’s impermanence—how relationships fade into recollections yet continue to shape the present. Each track unfolds like a page from a diary, blurring the lines between what was lived and what is imagined.
Rooftops in the Centerfold begins with a smooth, melancholic opening track, “Unbound.” The song is a clean introduction to the album’s somber tone. Lawrence takes the time to reflect on a past partner. He’s lamenting, not in a raged manner but in an honest introspection, thanks to Lawrence’s powerful lyrics.
“Yesterday, my love / Unbound as a book found in the bar / A messy page unturned / Took me on and tossed me on the floor”
The album takes a slower shift, starting with its second track, “Yellow Moon.” “Yellow Moon” carries a starry, shoegaze tone, as layered by Lawrence’s magnetic vocals and gentle instrumentals. It transports listeners to a dreamlike, care-free state.
In its next song, “Dream of Her Awhile,” Lawrence maintains his shoegaze ambiance while introducing a little bit of calming jazz backing. “Dream of Her Awhile” is an ode to our dearest partners. Again, bringing in Lawrence’s sweet vocals, the track weaves in Greg Marino’s woodwinds in the track’s climax to emulate a 70s-sounding love song to our crushes.
In the album’s title track, “Rooftop in the Centerfold,” the track deepens the album’s melancholic tone. The song begins with church bells chiming in, setting the tone of a chilly autumn night, which is then accentuated by Lawrence’s vivid, almost dreamlike imagery.
“Two drops in the center of the emerald blades / Lilies leading down the road, and back to her gate / Rooftop skies tangerine at the end of the day / Tear drops in the center of the map I made”
“Rooftops in the Centerfold” is reminiscent of a midnight walk around Central Park’s fall breeze, where fleeting beauty meets quiet solitude, capturing the ache of nostalgia that runs through the album.
“Only A Dream I Had” takes a tonal shift as the song brings a fun, more upbeat energy to the album. Leaning on its jazzy instrumentals, “Only A Dream I Had” questions the album’s dreamy narrative haze thus far. Was the woman he dedicated the album to so far real? Or was it only a dream he had? The change in genre could suggest that this moment is meant to blur reality with fantasy, leaving the listener suspended between memory and imagination.
Rooftops in the Centerfold ends with “True Love Don’t Disappear.” The song is a great conclusion to Lawrence’s search for clarity between longing and memory, tying together the album’s themes of nostalgia, melancholy, and fleeting romance. In an acoustic set, Lawrence contemplates his love. Whether his love was real or a dream, it all comes down to one thing: true love doesn’t disappear.
With Rooftops in the Centerfold, Lawrence crafts more than just a collection of songs—he creates a reflective journey that lingers between reality and imagination. Through its blend of melancholic tones, dreamlike imagery, and occasional bursts of brightness, the album captures the fragile persistence of love and memory.
By the time the final notes of True Love Don’t Disappear fade out, listeners are left with the reminder that even when love slips into the realm of dreams, its resonance endures.
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