Blistering heat is warming the office like a furnace. Stick a frozen deep-dish pizza in here and it will bubble in the same time it takes to listen to This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway. The Lola Young album backed by a flurry of solid, standalone releases like Wish You Were Dead beckons. These alt-pop cries are just what you need. What a rush. Lola Young has breached the fold. A notable and intense experience is formed and the talents which were assured by the singles and releases before this are confirmed. Love songs are nothing new. Difference comes from the lived-in experience, the extra layers added to it. Young separates herself from the crowd with formidable, intelligent analysis of personable and piercing experiences. Everything from its title to the cold stare found on the front maintains the balance of an honest artist.
Opener Good Books pairs nicely with the ever-played Wish You Were Dead. There is a direct stance taken. More would benefit from it. Young has charted the fragile and volatile moments of love in London and beyond. This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway is not dependent on colloquialisms, but the backdrop of the Big Smoke is an alluring quality found by the best of those working in the capital. Amy Winehouse used it with the soulful grooves of Back to Black as she laced her best bits with reflections on the great singers who influenced her. Young looks at her own life and finds a nice balance between those neo-soul movements and the accessible alt-pop style. Venturing into the latter genre is always a danger because of how oversaturated it is, yet the likes of Big Brown Eyes have no trouble standing out.
Young has a fury and passion blurred into one another which only the best, most articulate voices of the time can adapt to. This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway is success after success. Messy gets to the root of those harsh realities. Abandoned and isolated tones dominate the structure of this and punch through with a furiously honest representation of everyday experiences. It is the profound found in the ordinary which separates Young as one of the best up-and-coming writers. Young has the qualities expected of a star. Walk On By is a masterful piece, a track which has the swagger of independence necessary to surviving the hardships documented by Young throughout this impressive second album.
Outro expresses it best. Spoken word at the end of an album which has already championed its message feels excessive but Young makes it work. There is no room for wrong readings and the personal charms brought through This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway are deeply affecting. Honesty like this has a spot at the highest pedestal in music and thankfully the works Young provides her listeners, the brutal opinions and experiences which are both uncomfortable yet oddly gratifying to hear as similarities between your life is paired with Young, are comfortable. They are pointers of great momentum, an artist in touch with her listeners not through careful steps but through sincerity rarely felt at this level.
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I rarely comment on these articles but this is one of the most interesting, and definitely the most profound review I have ever read about Lola’s music. I know she will agree with me on this since she (unfortunately) tends to read much of what is written by the critics. It goes without saying that like a growing number of people, you seem to ‘get’ her on a musical level. Therefore, I for one am looking forward to reading what you write about some of her other output, as there is much out there already.