For artists, the allure of the album remains. Sure, other projects, other forms of releasing music, can tantalise but the role the album plays within their broader catalogue has yet to be surpassed. Take L Devine – the 26-year-old songwriter has numerous achievements under her belt, yet she’s still fascinating by the album.
Out now, ‘Digital Heartifacts’ comes close to scratching that itch. A bold slice of ultra-personal storytelling, it boasts fan favourites and some never-before-heard artefacts, each adding to her tale of riveting truth.
Here, L Devine breaks down the album for Clash.
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Eaten Alive
‘Eaten Alive’ is the first track me and Jay wrote for the album. The opening line ‘Carefully think Carefully, everything’s a trigger accidentally’ sets a precedent for themes on the album. The song is about anxiety eating me alive, living inside me and dividing me into two people. The horror- esque imagining of anxiety being a parasite that burrows inside my mind and feeds off it
Made the song feel more surreal than any of the others on the album that touch on mental health. We dipped into a bit of a UKG world on this as well which I think made the track feel super urgent and frenetic which kinda adds to the sense of being chased by this anxiety monster.
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Push It Down
I’ve been calling ‘Push It Down’ a situationship anthem. It tries to hide any signs of vulnerability, keeping my voice at this really blasé, monotone range to convince you I don’t give a fuck. But throughout the song my emotions boil to the surface as I fail to mimic my not quite girlfriend’s nonchalance and eventually I erupt, screaming down the mic. It’s kind of funny because its so obvious I’m bothered and I’m trying so hard not to be, it doesn’t take itself too seriously in that way so it feels pretty punchy and drunk, a hot mess.
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Slippin Away
I’ve been talking a lot about humour being a defence mechanism for me around the release of the album. I protect myself in my songwriting by being self aware and taking the piss out of myself before anyone else can. This song is peak L Devine in that way. The guitar solo at the end feels like this comic soundtrack to me walking around sulking over this unrequited love, honestly it gives me spongebob vibes. I also look like Spongebob so that makes sense.
If I Don’t Laugh I’ll Cry
To me this feels like the most fun on the album, I’m wrapping up any heaviness into a joke, it’s a proper fuck it moment. I think my favourite lyric on the album is from this song ‘a fine line between cracking and harmony’. It’s that funny little sweet spot between a mental breaking point and feeling completely liberated. I think It stands out amongst the rest because of the 6/8 groove as well, it really drives you along. It’s a good one to put on if you need to walk somewhere fast.
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Miscommunikaty
This is my favourite one, this created the world of the album for me. It started as just a stream of consciousness lyric where I didn’t know where the song would end up or what it was really about, neither does the listener until its revealed I’m asking the person I’m addressing to understand me. That’s a huge theme of the album, the need to feel understood and I was super inspired by the ‘Miscommunikaty’ line. I thought of it as this online pseudonym that I hid behind. Which you can see in the music video.
I saw of her as this social recluse. Living in a tent in the woods longing for genuine connection. She’s surrounded by this computer cluster wired into the online world and has turned into this lonely, bitter online troller in response everything she’s gone through, almost as if that is what could happen to me if I never feel understood or loved by someone. I think creating this character helped me compartmentalise all the negative parts of my thoughts and feelings in this album, I see all those feelings as her.
PMO
I realised honesty was more important to me than coming across right and good in my writing, and this song felt like a delicate subject where so many different emotions and thoughts overlapped.
On the surface it’s about being a lesbian in a love triangle with a woman and a man. It’s clearly about men not taking wlw relationships seriously, and sexualising them as if it’s just something for them to observe. But it’s also about these tangled feelings of jealousy and insecurity on my half.
The situation raised a lot of questions in myself, why do I feel more threatened and angered by man in a situation like this than I would another woman? It feels like a really particular part of the lesbian experience I haven’t talked about heard in a pop song before. It’s also the first time i’ve ever been really angry about something on a song before.
Worship
I think this one will scratch an itch for anyone who was into the more synth pop side of my previous releases. it centred around this really pokey arpeggiated synth and lots of play with vocal delays. Like all of the love songs on this album, its less about the other person and more about the relationship revealing my patterns and how I view myself. I was listening to a lot of prospa, the knife and prince when making this song.
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I think this song sounds so pretty, it has all my favourite production elements of the album in it. Jay’s acoustic finger picking and the glitchy heavy autotuned vocals go so good together. Its a really gorgeous blend of natural and unnatural sounds. Maybe the most heartbreaking, sad girl lyric on the album too, which is saying a lot!
Bully
‘Bully’ was the last song me and Jay wrote for the album, everything was mixed, it was something stupid like week of delivery and we decided to put this song on there. I had that one line in my phone for ages ‘so you bully yourself then you’re full of yourself’ and kept coming back to it. Its full of duality and contradictions, which felt really human.
On and Off
A more playful sibling to ‘Push It Down’. The lyrics are a power struggle, it’s less about love and about who’s winning the game. I love how much me and jay leaned into classic pop structure on this one. The repetition of on and off and that 90s esque pay off on the last post chorus feels so satisfying. Im most excited about playing this one live, on and off is such a no brainer crowd sing along.
Hater
The inner critic is really present throughout the album, but I wanted to write a song that directly addressed it. Hater is like a look into my head, a stream of intrusive thoughts that are playing on a constant loop. It sounds kind of dark but honestly I was laughing while writing every lyric. I got stuck into my love for glitchy electronic weirdness on this song. That mad synth lead on this song is my favourite musical moment on the album.
Laundry Day
On the surface ‘Laundry Day’ appears to be the story of a relationship where my partner is overwhelmed by the way my mental health is affecting me, ultimately ending our relationship. But it’s not really about that, that never happened. The song was really just me projecting that insecurity onto them before they’d even told me how they feel. Miscommunication and the inner critic strikes again! I love the juxtaposition of the melancholy lyrics and the super chirpy and sweet music on this. I chose this as the last track because I thought the lyric ‘I gotta clean my head’ was a perfect and hopeful end to the album.
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APRIL
15th – Glasgow, King Tut’s
17th – Newcastle, Wylam Brewery
18th – Leeds, Hyde Park Book Club
19th – Manchester, Academy 3
21st – Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
22nd – London, Lafayette
‘Digital Heartifacts’ is out now.
