This is the second album by Montreal singer Ada Lea (stage name for Alexandra Levy) brings out so many emotions in the most absolutely beautiful way. Ranging from topics like emotional baggage, relationship troubles, and feelings of inadequacy, Ada Lea finds ways to strike deep with her messages, much like Phoebe Bridgers or Mitski. This indie-folk album is a beautiful continuation of the career that Lea has already established for herself.
The album opens with my personal favorite, “damn,” a haunting song about seeing a friend struggle and not feeling like you can do enough to help them. The message of the song is slightly obscured by the upbeat tempo and melodic guitars, but upon closer inspection, it speaks to an experience that I think a lot of people can relate to. This is a pretty common theme throughout Lea’s music, incredibly painful or sad stories masked by positive-sounding music that wouldn’t make you think twice if you didn’t pay attention to the lyrics. The third track “oranges” recalls an old relationship, either a friend or significant other named Mary, and mostly reminisces on the good times the singer and Mary had together. However, the singer isn’t speaking to Mary anymore and asks someone else to tell her that they’re thinking of these things and that they remember these things about their relationship. Halfway through the album comes the interlude “and my newness spoke to your newness and it was a thing of endless.” This instrumental song serves to break up the album a bit and shifts the momentum that has been built up by the first few songs. The album doesn’t change much after this song, but it’s a nice little rest in between “saltspring” and “my love 4 u is real.” “saltspring” is another relatively heartbreaking track where the singer reminisces on a past relationship and how they notice the shift in the relationship. It speaks to the feeling many people have as they get older of seeing friends grow and change, and not quite being upset about it, but being sad that you don’t know them as well anymore. The album closes with “hurt,” which is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful tracks on the album both lyrically and musically. Lea sings about having been hurt in the past and trying to figure out how to move on and get going with her life again but is finding it extremely difficult. She says she wants to move back where her parents are because being alone is driving her crazy and she can’t figure out who she is anymore.
I haven’t heard an album that touched me the way this one did in a very long time. While I can’t relate to all of Lea’s experiences, the way she sings about them makes them feel universal. The album can be quite sad at times, but at the same time is extremely cathartic and makes you feel like you’re seen and heard and that you aren’t alone in your experiences. I highly recommend listening to this album and seeing how you connect with her stories and hearing the journey that she brings you on throughout the album.
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