There are songs you discover and songs that find you, usually through a car window somewhere between a motorway and a coast road, with the volume up and the afternoon stretched out ahead. ‘LaiLuv’, the new single from nineteen-year-old Curb Records artist Owen Rivera, is very much the second kind.
Built around a tropical melody, breezy vocal harmonies, and a lightness of touch that recalls the golden-era Beach Boys without ever feeling like pastiche, ‘LaiLuv’ does what only the best summer pop can: it conjures a feeling more than a place. Warm nights, late drives, the particular glow of a moment you already know you’ll want to hold onto. Rivera doesn’t oversell any of it; the lyrics are unhurried, the production lets the song breathe, and that restraint is exactly what makes it work.
Written by GRAMMY Award-winning producer Michael Lloyd and Emmy Award winner Greg O’Connor, the craft underneath LaiLuv is immediately apparent. This is a pop song that knows precisely what it is and executes it with real confidence. The hook settles in early and stays long after the track ends.
That Rivera pulls it off with such ease at nineteen is, frankly, a little unfair on everyone else. A singer-songwriter, drummer, multi-instrumentalist, and SAG-AFTRA voice actor who has shared stages with the likes of Mavis Staples, Jason Mraz, and Graham Nash, he carries the kind of natural ease that usually takes years to develop. His 2025 Christmas single reached number five on the MediaBase Christmas Chart. LaiLuv suggests the ceiling is considerably higher.
Consider this your soundtrack for the season.
