Album Review: Lights - 'A6'

Lights is a Canadian solo artist, who hit the charts in 2008 and came out with a bang. She encompasses a free energy with an electronic synth rhythm to her music, and frankly, I love an artist that stays true to their roots. 16 years later, Lights maintains the feelings of young summer music festivals and flower crowns if that makes sense. Does that make sense? If it doesn’t listen to the album and tell me she doesn’t just embody that magical energy 2016 Coachella is still reminisced to have. That’s Lights. She’s true to herself and in that you see her love for her music and fans.

I love that the songs talk about relationships, fears, everyday struggles and still have something that feels both upbeat and melancholy. It reminds me of 80s new wave like Eurythmics or Tears for Fears: something experimental that challenges pop as a genre. I think for this album, Lights has showcased new facets of what fans know and love about her music. I think “Surface Tension”is my favorite track from this album for the way in which it plays into a dark wave melody and challenges Light's original sound. I also loved the way it played against “White Paper Palm Trees” which is a call to her more traditional electronic roots. I think the ways in which the songs play into each other showcases the complexity of an artist as they continue to create new music. I think that Lights is unique in the way that she has found new parts of herself to share with her audience, new and old, and how she does so in 2025 while also honoring the same artist winning a new artist award in 2009.

This album isn’t just another record to add to the notch of an artist's catalog, but a call to reinvention and growth. We all regardless of our career must reinvent and grow to become newer and more developed versions of ourselves without comprising who we are at our core. Just today, I had a conversation with an older woman who told me she was 71 but felt like she did when she was 50, and when she was 50, she actually felt she was still 20. We talked about what it meant to change without feeling like you’re really changing at all, and she gave me the sound advice of doing what it is that makes me truly happy and I won’t ever have to worry about aging another day. Lights haven't aged a day by those standards. Her music in this new era still feels like the music I see people reminiscing about from 2010. She still holds that young free energy from her early days, and I love to see an artist who grows without compromise or apology for who they are.

Rating 4/5