New Music From Nick Leng
Nick Leng’s debut LP, LEMONS, is set for release via SOTA Recordings on April 24. The full-length follows two EPs, Tunnels and Planes and Drivers, which have racked up millions of streams online and found widespread support from the likes of Consequence of Sound, Vogue, and Christian Dior. LEMONS represents the next stage in the South African-born, Los Angeles-based musical polymath’s journey, coming after an emotional breakup, an apartment fire and subsequent loss of a friend. The experience led him through wistfulness, isolation, and ultimately towards a renewal of spirit; sometimes, you must explore the most painful moments of your life to release your most inspiring contemplations about it.
The LP opens with the blissed-out “Music To Clean The House To,” an intricately layered track about a past relationship that wafts through a piano-and-synth soundscape before landing on a wonky horn drop, and finds its pivotal moment on the levitating, heartbreaking “Lonely Shade of Blue,” an emotional centerpiece that details moving on from a relationship. Both songs were the result of much revision. It’s a reflection that resonates through much of “LEMONS,” which teems with a nostalgia that’s at once tormented and hopeful. This theme trickles through into the throwback echo-chamber of “Ticking,” about the unfortunate timing of a relationship, as well as the album’s sweeping title track. The disconsolate “Walking Home to You” wistfully recalls “that feeling of going back home and having someone I love be waiting for me,” while “In A Book (Back To Me)” was written to process the passing of a friend. The nonchalant, escapist “Sweet Thing” evokes a get-in-the-van road trip to Woodstock, while the darkly-colored “Plastic Moon” provides a palette for a mind-bending guest verse from underground rapper Chester Watson. “Music, to me, is a language,” Leng says, “and I want to articulate my truth through it.” Such is the unique allure of LEMONS: It is emotionally literate, musically impulsive, and creatively unpredictable. “My favorite thing is just creating worlds for the listener to swim in,” he explains. “I love textures, little places for their ears to go and set up a habitat. My dream is to take people out and put them in a new place.”
“Swelling orchestral pop” -KCRW
“Hint[s] at an ambitious album with a scaled-up artistic vision.” -COMPLEX UK
“Nick Leng’s sincerity just cannot help but spill out from his music like ice pushing water over the cup’s edge… His gentle tone and passionate energy for personal craftsmanship have made his music sound out amongst the masses.” -Ones To Watch
“Nick Leng has a penchant for the remarkable. His brand of pop ventures into psychedelic with soundscapes that are cathartic and celestial.” -Atwood Magazine
RIYL: Andy Schauf, (Sandy) Alex G, Blake Mills, Elliott Smith, Tame Impala, Dent May
Recommended Tracks: Track 1, “Music To Clean The House To,” Track 2, “Ticking,” Track 3, “Lemons,” Track 4, “Lonely Shade Of Blue,” Track 7, “Walking Home To You,” Track 9, “Plastic Moon (f/ Chester Watson),” Track 11, “In A Book (Back To Me)”
FCC Clean
Label: SOTA Recordings
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