SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: LIGHTS – PEP

Lights
Pep
Fueled By Ramen

Few artists in the pop arena are as unique or as adventurous when it comes to electro-rock artists like Lights. Throughout her career, her music is hardly what you would call mainstream alternative pop music. Looking at her latest album release, PEP, the same holds. Holding some of the most emotional gravitas and creative zeal to date, Lights takes off the gloves on this latest album release and lets her charismatic energies flow from start to finish.

From the gate, PEP is something unique and special. Some will look at this experience as a gorgeous alternative-pop record, but ethereal treats like “Beside Myself” provide the beginner’s backdrop we need to start the journey on this beautiful album.

Other bombastic moments on PEP are confident tracks such as “Jaws.” Brimming with tenacity, lyrical boldness, and adorable soundscapes in ways that only Lights can, “Jaws” is sure to become a favorite on the album.

The hits keep rolling in with the next track, “Rent.” A beautifully heightened experience that fully explores more of the artist’s EDM side, this is a track that will live in your head for a while, as it’s powerfully delicate, vulnerable, and uniquely Lights.

As if we could not get enough of “Rent’s” energy, “Sparky” and “Okay, Okay” keep the fire burning for the rest of the album experience. Catchy earworms for the books, Lights continues to dazzle us with her creative abilities and with pure conviction shows us why she is one of the best in the genre.

The album beautifully ends with her closing track “Grip.” With stunningly comforting soundscapes interwoven around emotive lyricism, Lights does a fantastic job keeping our ears glued to this listening experience to the last song.

PEP has proven that it is more than just a poignant and decadent display of multi-genre pop. It’s a unique approach by an artist that takes the risk simply because her unexampled nature has always placed her within the ranks to take them as only she can. Lights’ maturity as an artist has grown with PEP, with her powerful soundscapes and lyrical visions sounding confidently secure, but only time will tell what the artist will do next. PEP is her sound come full-circle, but with someone as atypical as Lights, this is only the beginning of something special.

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