“For Now, Forever” - Liana Warren
Photo Credit: Artist EPK
Liana Warren’s debut full-length album, “For Now, Forever,” doesn’t just play—it invites. It welcomes you into a world that feels familiar but tinged with a little more magic than you remembered. It opens with the sound of an Oakland freeway, and by the end, you’ve been spun through memories, moonlight, grief, laughter, and back again—all in about 40 minutes.
The title, For Now, Forever, is more than clever—it’s a mission statement. The former “Liana For Now” (which began as a throwaway name for a gig poster) has grown into something real, something intentional. This album is Liana stepping into the long haul, without ever losing the ephemeral tenderness that gave her work its soul to begin with.
Liana Warren doesn’t write songs as much as she lets them bloom quietly in the corners of real life. These aren’t grand declarations or polished pop platitudes—these are lived-in, hand-woven songs, passed to you like a note on folded paper.
With roots dug deep in the San Francisco Bay Area music community, you can hear the village behind her—this is music born in living rooms, community shows, cozy corners of bars. It’s warm with the fingerprints of collaboration and local love, yet unmistakably Liana’s voice guiding the journey.
“Twin Peaks” is the shimmering opener, setting the tone with a nostalgic omnichord and a love letter to city skylines and shared memories. It sparkles, but gently.
“Atoms Colliding” is existential in the best way—it asks the big questions, not with anxiety, but with awe. It lets the listener fall into the expanse of the unknown, wrapped in layered harmonies and wide-open sonic space.
“Cleo’s Bath” and “The Apple Tree” hold the album’s emotional core. These are elegies—for pets, for grandparents, for childhood itself. But the heartbreak doesn’t drag you down—it lifts you, softens you. It reminds you that grief is love’s shadow.
“Patterns” is a stunner—so much so that a 140+ member Oakland choir chose to cover it. It’s a meditation on inertia, apathy, and those weird in-between seasons of life where we’re waiting for something to click.
“Paulina” takes us somewhere different—Mexico City—and asks one of the album’s hardest-hitting questions: “If it’s not forever, then what is it all for?”
And then there’s “Hearts & Minds,” the cinematic closer. It feels like the end of a film that made you cry and smile at the same time. It’s poetic, sweeping, and deeply human. A curtain call in audio form.
Yes, you’ll hear echoes of Joni Mitchell in the guitar work and storytelling. Adrianne Lenker fans will recognize the painterly lyricism. There’s a pinch of Laura Marling’s folk mysticism and even John Prine’s dry tenderness in the songwriting.
Credit: Photo by Paulina Zepeda
But Liana Warren is not trying to be anyone else. She’s got a voice that’s both airy and grounded, a vocal range that climbs like ivy and roots like oak. Her lyrics feel pulled from journals, yet strangely universal.
It’s like this: if you’ve ever looked out the window on a rainy day and remembered something that hurt—but smiled anyway—this album is for you.
What makes it special is the bay area soul – you can feel the streets, rivers, and hills in every chord. The songwiritng is raw, but not unrefined. Thoughtful without being overthought. You’ll feel like you’re sitting on the floor of her apartment, tea in hand, listening to her tell you secrets.
This album is a quiet triumph. It doesn’t scream for attention, but it demands you stop and listen. It holds your hand through change, loss, and the quiet epiphanies that mark the passing of time. It’s personal and universal, heartbreaking and hopeful.
So, if you’re looking for something to make you feel without overwhelming you, to remind you that nothing is forever but this moment, and that this moment can be enough, then press play.
You’ll be glad you stayed—for now… and maybe, forever.
“For Now, Forever” is available now on all major streaming platforms
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Listen to Liana Warren and other similar artists on our Spotify Playlist ‘New Music Spotlight - Folk & Country’
