Four Island

Remember when I said that not all of my Best of 2012 albums were actually released this year? Well, here comes one of those. Lights Poxleitner (or just Lights) is a Canadian artist that I've really heard of before getting into Tumblr and making some Marina & the Diamonds friends. One of my Tumblr friends, who is probably below the age limit for having a Tumblr but whatever, seemed rather fond of this strange artist. Her most recent album (released October 4, 2011) Siberia seemed interesting--at least, it had cool looking cover art.

Wouldn't you agree? I also gave the title track of the album a quick listen, and it seemed pretty cool, throbbing baselines and such (yeah I have no idea what that meant but I hoped it would sound cool), so I put the album on my birthday list, and promptly forgot about it to the swirling vortex of other assorted nothings I have going on in my life. A few months later, however, I found a belated birthday package in my mailbox, and inside was good ol' Poxleitner, so I gave the album a whirl, and I'm quite happy I did.

Lights has a very electric, very synthetic sound to her music, and the album has a nice flow to it. The high energy of Everybody Breaks A Glass, as one of the album's singles, makes you want to dance (as do most songs on the album), but it also just has that element of beauty to it, especially in the chorus. In fact, it's one of my favorite songs on the album. My other favorite song is the slow, peaceful ballad Cactus In The Valley, which sweeps you up in its emotion and carries you off. This song is actually fairly unlike the rest of the songs on the album, however.

Some other standout songs are Peace Sign, a fast-paced pretty song, and Heavy Rope, a slower, gentler song that feels like a wave washing over you. Really, this album is pretty great, except for the Suspension, And Counting..., and Day One. I also dislike the rapping in Everybody Breaks A Glass and Flux And Flow. I've gotten used to it now and I can't say it really detracts much from the songs but I really don't feel like it adds anything either. Nonetheless, Siberia by Lights is a very good album for the most part and I would definitely suggest it for someone looking for some new music. I also feel like I should give her other album a look since I liked this one so much, so we'll see how that goes. :)