Ontario’s Jessy Lanza has near-enough perfected the art of aqueous electro-pop over the course of the last decade, creating a sound that’s as instantly recognisable as it is inimitable. That means new inspiration is required to keep her sound fresh and on ‘Love Hallucination’, her fourth album proper, she finds it… of a fashion.
‘Limbo’ is arguably the most immediate track Lanza has ever released, with its elastic bassline and singalong chorus bringing 80s disco into the modern era in the same way Dua Lipa has done so successfully. But in contrast to the joyous ‘Limbo’, ‘I Hate Myself’, with its repetition of the titular phrase, is as dispiriting as it sounds. These two extremes aside, ‘Love Hallucination’ is pretty much Jessy Lanza doing what she’s always done. Her beats are as clean and sharp as cut glass, her vocals beam in from an unknown astral plane, and her synths hover somewhere between this world and the next.
Originally a Canadian curio on Hyperdub, ‘Love Hallucination’ is further evidence she’s now one of the label’s strongest artists, and also one of the most consistent creators of the past ten years. She may have slowly left her bedroom and found her way into the club, but Jessy Lanza continues to produce intimate moments you can get lost in.
8/10
Words: Joe Rivers
Dig This? Dig Deeper: Dua Lipa, Junior Boys, Janet Jackson
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