A6 [Orange Crush LP]

by Lights

Overview

On her aptly titled sixth album, 2025's A6, Valerie Poxleitner, aka Lights, offers a slight shift on her hooky dance-pop, conjuring a moody, '80s new wave atmosphere. The record, which follows her infectious 2022 album Pep, finds the Canadian singer/songwriter in an introspective state of mind. Having debuted with 2009's sweet-toned The Listening, Poxleitner has matured over the years, and her electronic-infused pop (she also puts out a companion acoustic version of each of her albums) has grown ever more musically and lyrically ambitious. If Pep's kaleidoscopic colors worked to springboard Poxleitner out of the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, then A6 feels like the other side of that pop uplift, a monochrome return to the realities and difficulties of everyday life. There's a sense that Poxleitner is taking stock of her emotional health, perhaps rethinking relationships, her career, and past traumas. It's a cathartic attitude she underscores on "Surface Tension," singing, "How's it feel when it falls out of focus?/How's it feel when nobody even notice?/F*ck love, f*ck friends, f*ck showbiz." Built around a dusky, effects-laden bass groove and whip-crack dance beat, the song deftly evokes the melodic '80s alt-pop of bands like the Cure and New Order. She carries that aesthetic throughout all of A6, sustaining an after-hours goth dance club vibe on cuts like "Alive Again," "Damage," and "White Paper Palm Trees." At the center of A6's black lipstick-stained, glitter-goth atmosphere is Poxleitner with her throaty coo, sounding as vulnerable and utterly in charge as ever. ~ Matt Collar

Product Details

Release Date:	05/16/2025
Label:	Virgin Records Us
UPC:	0044003442771

Tracks

1. Intro
2. Damage
3. Alive Again
4. Surface Tension
5. You're Killing Me
6. White Paper Palm Trees
7. Ghost Girl On First
8. Take It Easy
9. Drinks On the Coast
10. Clingy
11. The Other Side of the Door
12. Piranha
13. Day Two

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Lights   Primary Artist