The rawness of emotion that characterises Låpsley’s debut LP, ‘Long Way Home’, is profound. Its understated simplicity is enhanced by honest lyrical clarity, with her music betraying a deep-thinking soul.
The Liverpool-based producer wrote the album as she slowly came to terms with the breakdown of a relationship. Retold with gentle compassion, it transports the listener delicately through her painful and heartfelt experiences as her boyfriend was overrun by Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Låpsley’s hurt distorts, hopeless but heartfelt.
Still young, she is currently 19, and malleable on record and in life, Låpsley constructed ‘Long Way Home’ alongside XL’s in house producer Rodaidh McDonald, maintaining auteur-like control over her music and its presentation.
Her poetic lyrics are shadowed by slow moving, muted piano keys. Standout track Painter twinkles with a delicate poignancy that simply feels so, so sad. The song plays out like a final conversation that will never happen, imagined by the lover left alone.
Station is another incredible moment. Låpsley’s sporadic and experimental use of electronic sounds, complemented by the layered vocals, feels brittle and inconsolable. It’s followed by the epic, full-sounding Love is Blind, which turns on the lyrics: “I may look opaque, I may look like I’ve been made with too many mistakes. I know the fire has burnt out, I gotta leave now.”
Rural, rugged landscapes and the coast have played a big role in the development of her music's aesthetic. The uncontrollable patterns of nature inform Silverlake, mirroring her own unravelling relationship. “The inevitability of it ending, like a lake running out of water,” she told i-D. “It's pretty now but it will run out of water and that's a fact, so knowing the relationship would end but just carrying it out feels similar."
Exploring inevitability, loss of hope and life-changing love, the heady atmospheres constant throughout the LP feel overwhelming in the most evocative and indulgent way.
Lapsley Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Wed March 30 2016 - LONDON Heaven
Wed October 19 2016 - LONDON O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire
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