[gtranslate]
Music

Introducing: Lights

Lights is my antidote for being over-folked. Sometimes, I over-indulge in the organic and vegan, only to find that I crave something full of sugars and saturated fats. When I feel like filling my ears with figurative ‘junk’, I can easily fall into the evil, spiralling vortex that is Top 40 radio and kill yet more of the precious few brain cells I have left. I am looking at YOU Ariana Grande!

lights band

Illustrator, video game enthusiast, pop singer and all round renaissance woman of all the things gen Y holds dear. Here’s Canada’s biggest pop princess since Robin Sparkles, Lights.

Alex said that Lights is kinda “on the super-massive-pop star scale” but I doubt many of you have heard of her because you know, Canada… Despite her super pop status in Canada (won some Juno awards, has that cool dude who hosts Studio Q as a manager.) I can promise you that she ain’t no Taylor Swift, even though Queen Swift rulez 4eva.  I only know of about five people of my vast sea of social acquaintances who know of Lady Lights, and two of those people are twins, so that only counts as one. Right?

The dream girl of so many nerds, lights sounds like a lighter version of Evanesence with some wub-wubs and vintage synth thrown in. I <3 synths! She writes, she plays guitar, piano, keytar, synthesiser and sings. She’s also a ‘BOSS’ gamer (her song Lions was inspired by WoW) – not that I’d know, I don’t even Sims properly most of the time – and an avid graphic artist who has collaborated with Marvel animations.

If you’re willing to give her a go, I’d prescribe you her album Siberia – a much more gritty and darker sounding record than her debut LP The Listening. Tracks like Siberia and Fourth Dimension are like homages to Lights’ love for retro game soundtracks and chip-tune, with staticky hooks and plastic melodies which sound like they’ve been tapped out on a toy keyboard. 80s pop for the win.

Lights is not limited to her electro/synth-pop and dubstep-ish roots. February Air a single from her first album The Listening gives us a taste of her ability to catch you unexpectedly as you are lulled into a false sense of contentment with sugary sweet vocals and breathy echoes, then steadily builds into a climax of eerie, emo-pop vocal excercises. The entire Lights Acoustic EP also proves to haters that this chick indeed knows how to sing and that she can wield a guitar just as well as she can pwn you in Marvel Kombat*.

Lights has a new record dropping on September 23rd. Check out her new single Up We Go below which is super poppy and that you’ll probably hate. Not my fave either but eh, it’s catchy and not folky so I’m cool with it… Sorry Folk music, I’ll love you again in about two weeks from now.

*Editorial recognizes this authorial oversight and has left it in because it’s just the most hilarious thing I’ve read all week. Sorry Ann!

FIND OUT MORE ON

 FACEBOOK ▲ WEB  iTUNES

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/162329449″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]