Lola Young – Wish You Were Dead Review

Riches of musical interest can be found in one of two ways. Either you can stumble on them yourself or you can keep receiving recommendations, be it through your endless list of unread emails or from those closest to you, battering you about the head with song recommendations. Wish You Were Dead from Lola Young is from the latter camp and proves involuntary press relations officers can come from anywhere. There they go, driving off in undisclosed vehicles, a text away from telling you to check this track out or binge this artist. And rightly so. It is where the best of references and musicians are found and there is no denying the quality Young provides on Wish You Were Dead, a joyous number even with its deathly intent.  

Those bass pulls at the start before the twang of electric guitar and the shock harshness and brutal nature from Young is what Wish You Were Dead relies on. Pretend infatuation for the shock and awe experience of sex comes through and with it a sense of temporary connection. We are blasted often enough with situationships or the absolute unknown which comes from false assurances, and Wish You Were Dead gets to the volatile core of how we can feel during those times. Have we all been there before? Probably. Wish You Were Dead gets deep into those uncomfortable feelings, the rage or angst of feeling unwanted and only hanging around for a temporary connection. But if you push through that anxiety, that fear of connection, you might have something extra, something unique.  

Whether Young mentions or even acknowledges this in her track is neither here nor there, but Wish You Were Dead, for all its antagonism, is filled with brief flutters of hope. Even in that physicality, and brutality, whatever it is Young is fighting against there is an uncomfortable forgiveness and a willingness to pretend everything is just fine. Where it gets this protagonist is not the point – the fear and open-ended chills are as delicate as they are volatile. Who knows what it is which sets you off, but the heavy percussion is an excellent trigger point for harsher ideas and brutal expectations. Simple and effective lyrics are built around this unrelenting electronic buffer and an incredible vocal range. Wish You Were Dead has monitored the pulse of disinterest and dissatisfaction in the pools of modern relationships and rails against it with genuine rage and spite. 

Wish You Were Dead takes complex anxieties and rips them apart. These are not thoughts in your head, you are not being unreasonable and there is no need to be gaslit. Get it out in the open, throw a punch and kick it in its head. Incredible stuff from Young, but that should be expected. There is an inherent need for music to tackle the troubles of us. Face the world and shout at it, all that self-centred horror. But do so in the right company. Young has at least got her head in the real world and for many artists, this proves difficult. Kick against the trouble and do so with a genuine understanding of it – as Young does here – and the chilling realities become clear. Exceptional stuff.