More about: Lola Young

Raw yet sweet, aggressive yet romantic. Lola Young shows off her emotional and musical range in her sophomore project My Mind Wanders and Sometimes Leaves Completely.

We all know who Lola Young is. Or at least, we should. And no, not because of her viral presence on TikTok, but because she is genuinely one of the most impressive up-and-coming artists in the British music scene. 

When I first listened to her brand new 10-track record My Mind Wanders and Sometimes Leaves Completely, I was pleasantly surprised. What started as an innocuous Internet sensation quickly became an eye-opening Internet revelation. The 22-year-old artist - a word that I am not using lightly - has it all: a great voice, a great vision and a great execution. However, just like pretty much every other 22-year-old on this planet, she does not have it all figured out, just yet. 

“It’s my journey towards being a woman and figuring out who I am,” she explains, “There’s a lot of references to people telling me I won’t make it [in the music industry]. It’s almost me talking to myself, addressing the difficulties you go through growing up, your insecurities.”

From the get-go, the first track ‘Stream of Consciousness’ starts gloriously with organ-like synths and Lola’s deep and raw vocals. “He said he wants to take me abroad, but I can barely fly with my own wings,” she confesses as if she was writing it in her diary.  With an incredible maturity in her lyrics, it sounds like Lola knows exactly what to say and how to say it. 

The track that follows, ‘Revolve Around You’, even if a bit underwhelming in comparison, is still a nice turnaround. In a 1975-esque chorus, accompanied by keyboard and enthralling drums, almost Sade-like, Lola sings ‘I think that I love you and it’s hurting my brain’. And love is a recurring theme in My Mind Wanders…, also reprised in what I think is the true star of the show, ‘Annabel’s House’. One of the simplest tracks of the album is also the most touching since Lola lets herself be transported by her vocals and what sounds like an inspired choir in the background. Piano ballads are not an easy nor a foregone element in an album like this, but they are certainly a welcome one. 

The Croydon-born singer’s work with producers like Malay, one of Frank Ocean’s trusted collaborators, and Charlie XCX and Caroline Polachek’s Jim-E Stack, is very noticeable, especially in songs like the smooth ‘Semantic Satiation’, which also is vaguely reminiscent of young SZA, and the guitar upbeat track ‘Money’, which talks about a “super rich kid” who spends their money “crushing pills on leather seats” in a hip-hop way. However, these are not the strongest moments, but rather a filler. As I wrote in my notes about these two tracks, they are a good jump from the more melancholic atmosphere created by the slower tracks that surround them.

“I don’t know why, but I’m falling out of love with life. It’s not you, my love, I’m just falling out of love with life” is such a hard-hitting statement from such a young soul, but in ‘Pretty in Pink’, Lola doesn’t seem to care. She explains that it is about “talking about the way that I hate life through love” and, through engulfing choruses and heartbeat-like drums in the background, the song pulls the listener in and never lets them go. With a final resolution at the end, the fifth track establishes itself as the most solid on the album.

The way I, and I am sure other thousands of people, first discovered Lola Young is through TikTok, specifically via two songs, which are ‘Don’t Hate Me’ and ‘What is it About Me’. Respectively, the first is definitely the weakest, not only out of the two but also out of the other nine tracks on the record. While there are a lot of feelings and emotions running through Lola’s live performance of it, it just does not hit the same recorded in a studio. But it is not a fault, it just shows that art is not two-dimensional, there isn’t just bad or just good, rather there are middle grounds that are inevitable and, most of the time, needed. They are needed to make sure the artist’s feet stay planted on the ground and it further proves that a book should never be judged by its cover. 

On the other hand, ‘What is it About Me’ is one of the strongest and most poignant moments on My Mind Wanders…, and was also the reason why I got curious about Lola Young and her music. With vocals out of this world, Lola vents about feeling neglected by a lover who is not really a lover. This song is exactly what this album needed, a more elaborate yet still humble track that reflects the simple yet complicated mind of a 20-something-year-old woman, who does not seem to ever want to shut up. But maybe that’s for the best if it results in creations like these. “I know I’m stressed, the truth’s heavy in my chest, when you’re making love you want to make with her,” Lola sings, and then continues: “What is it about me? That makes you question your life and lets you make me question mine.”

Life in your twenties is complicated. No one wants to listen, your problems are never big enough and it is full of “one day you’ll learn”s. The experiences are never important enough, and it takes a lot of strength and determination to go against the grain and talk about those seemingly insignificant problems, even if no one is there to hear them. With jazz and R&B influences, the last two tracks ‘Black Cab’ and ‘Chill Out’ are a beautiful testament to that, a hymn to pain and heartbreak and a symbol of young talent going unnoticed for too long. There are definitely more steps to take to achieve a more polished look and establish her personality further, but Lola Young is already in a great place. All that’s left now is to explore others. 

Grab your copy of the Gigwise print magazine here.

More about: Lola Young