First, she gifted us with synthwave for the soul on the How To Sleep When You’re On Fire EP (sales from which were donated to Black Lives Matter Vancouver), then came the iso-busting Dead End live stream extravaganza. Now, Canada’s sonic shapeshifter Lights has returned with ‘Beside Myself’, her first offering of solo new material since 2017’s Skin&Earth. And just like most releases from Lights, if you had guessed which direction the new batch would go in, chances are that you guessed wrong.
‘Beside Myself’ is a big departure from the recent EDM-infused offerings from Lights, and feels more spiritually akin to Skin&Earth while also breathing as a whole new beast entirely. The result is a hazy, dreamy composition that’s so delicate even the slightest disturbance could stir it from its daze. Balancing on the lightest of breaths, with floating, minimal guitar adjacent, ‘Beside Myself’ leaps forth at the midway point, morphing into a shimmering, blissed-out affair as its slow-burn saunter turns into a whole-hearted sprint, before finally dissipating into a flurry of reveries that slip through your fingers. In short: Lights has done it again.
Lights is of few casual words when describing the new song in recent posts, first noting ‘Beside Myself’ as somewhere “between happy n sad as I am usually both of these things,” further detailing on Twitter, “[I] cried when I tracked the second verse, was annoying to comp but this one does it to me every time. Rip me playing it live someday. Enjoy.” So, much like the rest of Lights’ repertoire, this is yet another for the thinkers and feelers of the world.
“Fun fact,” Lights adds, “It was mostly worked on by women: written/produced by me, engineered by Elisa Kady and drums by Jess Bowen“.
Far be it from us to take the oomph out of any emotional uppercut, from Lights no less, so we’ll let you cop it, full-force as designed, below. Keep checking in for more.
Hear the new single from Lights below.
‘Beside Myself’ by Lights is out now.
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