"Essential"
Brett Sparks, 'The Handsome Family'
Austin Chronicle
William D Graham Interview with Liv Mueller
"She’s an individualistic songwriter with a thing for haunting, minimalist guitar, which she multitracks with the reverb turned all the way up, building a creepy, majestic backdrop for her slowly unwinding anthems and a waltz or two."
New York Music Daily -delarue
Former Lovelies singer, Mueller, charts own path with 'Liv Sings Love Songs'
Journal Sentinel -Piet Levy
"The first track on the CD Haunted Face has heavy southern/gothic overtunes and could easily fit into the songbook of acts like Nick Cave or Mary My Hope." Brooklyn Rocks
Careless like thunder, broken for life,” sings Liv Mueller on “Salvation,” from her recently released solo effort, Liv Sings: Love Songs For The Forlorn And Misguided. Mueller channels those emotions into something more thoughtful than that of the edgy rocker she’s become mostly known as. Rock ’n’ roll suited her as Liv Lovely of Milwaukee’s the Lovelies (and her subsequent, atmospheric Dark Horse Project), but on Songs For The Forlorn, Mueller takes the torch of the unrequited and finds strength in going solo. Although she may be riding an inspiration wave that flows from those “broken” and tumultuous depths, the album is filled with buoyantly bitter vignettes that are both strikingly potent and sweetly haunting.Songs For The Forlorn begins with a proper intro (“One More Time”) where Mueller sets a dark, shadowy scene, a la Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang Bang,” establishing the story line for the songs to follow. Bridging the places traveled by the Lovelies and the Dark Horse Project, Mueller strips those former full sounds down to nothing more than her voice and guitar. Here, Mueller finally homes in on her voice and gives it a full spotlight. She also plays it up with a proper dose of loneliness on her guitar, which reverbs and twangs—a truly pretty combination, showcased nicely on heart breakers “Salvation,” “Crazy Arms,” and “Wish You May,” balancing nicely with the ramped-up effects and energy of “Long Gone” and “Let It Roll.” Veering from triumphant retaliation to somber contemplation (“This Kind Of Love,” “Father Angel”), Love Songs For The Forlorn And Misguided makes quick turns from vim to reluctance, with Mueller playing with shadows like a protégé of David Lynch. It’s moody, yes, but satisfyingly so.
-Erin Wolf, AVclub.com
Liv Mueller Liv Sings Love Songs for the Forlorn & Misguided
Although Liv Mueller has been part of Milwaukee's music scene for a long time, she has rarely been predictable. Fronting the Lovelies, she made increasingly muscular power-pop; with the Dark Horse Project, she concentrated on atmosphere; and with her new solo album, she's trying variations on a theme."Love Songs" is a spiritual successor to the conceptual likes of Frank Sinatra's "Only the Lonely"; in other words, the songs explore the tension of attraction, usually resolved by disappointment with the object of one's affection, if not entirely with love itself.Melodic and with steady voice, Mueller approaches her subject from many angles, such as the Jobim-style romanticism of "One More Time" and the dark-roads rock of "Let It Roll." She even takes the Patsy Cline classic "Crazy Arms" to its logical conclusion, letting the coda of the song spin down into echoing madness. The whole album makes it worth following Mueller there.
- Jon M. Gilbertson, Milwaukee Journal