“Hello. Are you still there?”
It’s been a few years since last we heard from Lyla Foy and the world has changed a lot since we did. So while she is not exactly checking in and making sure we’re still about with the opening lines to album track, “Baby”, it feels good to be asked.
We are still here and there is something warmly reassuring about having new music from Lyla with us. Over the years she has enchanted us with exquisite swirling soundscapes of deft electronic melodies and swoonsome harmonies. Her latest album Fornever is an elegant evolution, offering nine tracks of similar feeling and beauty.
That is not to say this is more of the same however, far from it. Fornever is as poignant and fragile as the likes of Mirrors the Sky, but Lyla’s sound is evolving. Album opener “Cartoon” and first single “Synergy”, for example, are bathed in a subtle sense of nostalgia. “Cartoon” is a soft, piano led ballad that dissolves into a soft-focus end-of-the-pier-waltz. Meanwhile “Synergy” is sepia-toned optimism, vintage home video smiles in a time of neighborly warmth and street-parties.
Elsewhere, “Tool” showcases Lyla’s mellifluous vocals whilst a piano line cascades like water from a rapidly melting icicle. “Affinity” ebbs gently atop a faded and distressed trip-hop like beat and album closer “Millenium” is a delicious tapas of all that preceded it. Heavenly vocals, warmth, tight skipping beats over light piano lines and warped electronica all pieced together dexterously and artistically. It is a perfect ending to another sublime offering.
That we love “Fornever” shouldn’t be a surprise. Since her Wall days, Lyla has consistently delighted us with her graceful and beguiling music. There is a lightness of touch, even where she moves into heavier lyrical territory. Everything is considered and provides depth and meaning to the composition whilst soothing and calming your very being.
It’s been a while, but it’s great to have Lyla back.
’Fornever’ is out on 2 April and is available to pre-order from Lyla’s Bandcamp page.
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