Lala Lala, Elton Aura

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Miwah Lee

Lala Lala (aka Lillie West).

$15.

media release: Lala Lala, project of Chicago-based musician Lillie West, unveils a new single/video, “Color of the Pool,” from her album, I Want The Door To Open, out October 8 on Hardly Art. In conjunction, she announces a North American tour. Throughout the album, West is fascinated with the idea of avatars: how we present ourselves to the world versus how other people see us versus who we really are when we’re alone, and how those images can change over time. “How can anyone else know who you are? How can you know who anyone else is,” asks West. It’s a question she poses with “Color of the Pool,” a song about wanting to embody the characteristics of something pure and uncatchable, like a flame, that features stacks of wigged-out saxophone from Adam Schatz (Landlady). In the music video, produced by Weird Life Films, West sits atop a motorcycle and rides through artificial projections of Chicago streets. The flashing fluorescent cityscape envelopes West, before she takes to the highway and disappears into the night’s traffic, eliminating any distinction between simulation and experience.

Watch Lala Lala’s Video for “Color of the Pool”

Following 2018’s acclaimed The Lamb, West wanted to make something sonically bigger and thematically more outward-looking than anything she’d done before; a record that would be less a straightforward documentation of her own personal struggles and more like a poem or a puzzle box, with sonic and lyrical clues that would allow the listener to, as the title says, open the door to the greater meaning of those struggles. I Want The Door To Open is a musical quest undertaken with the knowledge that the titular door may never open; but it is through falling in love with the quest itself that one may find the next closest thing, as expressed with lead single “DIVER.” It’s a bold exploration of persona and presence from an artist questioning how to be herself fully in a world where the self is in constant negotiation.

West co-produced I Want The Door To Open with Yoni Wolf of WHY?. It features contributions from Adam Schatz, Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, poet Kara Jackson, OHMME, Sen Morimoto, Christian Lee Hutson, Kaina Castillo, Meg Duffy, Will Miller, Gia Margaret, Josiah Wolf, and former tourmate Ben Gibbard.

“[‘DIVER’] is bright and anthemic, baroque in a way [Lala Lala’s] music hasn't necessarily been before.”- PAPER  

"On top of airy vocal sweeps and synth-pop bass, which propel the verses into explosive choruses with undeniable power, West seductively whispers about existential struggles.” - them.  

"Lillie West wants it all, and with songs like this in her pocket, she might just get it.” - Stereogum

"Immediately evident of a grandiose direction for [Lala Lala], the song’s tall synths, exuberant strings and catchy vocals make it feel bold and ambitious.” - Paste