Lights Album Review

About two years ago, Lights released her fourth full-length album, the Juno Awardwinning Skin & Earth. Earlier this year, on July 12th, she released an acoustic version — something she’s very well-known for doing with each album she releases. The album features acoustic versions of Lights’ seven favorite songs off of the 2017 album re-recorded in different settings that the singer felt suited each song. The locations used for the acoustic recordings were also based off of chapters in the comic series that were released along with the original album and were related to each song. Along with these reimagined versions of Skin & Earth tracks, there are also three new songs included on this album.

When re-recording each of the songs, Lights picked a specific chapter from the Skin & Earth comic series that she thought best coincided with the specific song and travelled to the settings of those chapters in order to record the songs there. One track in particular that stood out was “Skydiving.” The original track is upbeat and fast-paced, whereas the acoustic version is slowed down and more emotional. When listening to the acoustic version, the raw emotion and the meaning behind the words is conveyed more bluntly and the intensity of emotions felt by the listener reflects the title of the track. The acoustic version of “Skydiving” was recorded on a cliff, and this relates to the title of the song which also ties into the freefalling feeling of letting the emotions in Lights’ voice encompass the listener when they hear the slowed-down track.

The album as a whole has a more somber and emotional tone to it than the 2017 version because of how the tempo is slowed down and

the performances of the songs themselves are more raw on the acoustic tracks. Skin&Earth (Acoustic) lets the audience hear a more emotionally raw recording of the songs and the listeners can pick up on the message that Lights is trying to deliver with these songs.

One song that I personally think had less emotion and power behind it on Skin&Earth (Acoustic) rather than on the original album was “Savage.” The acoustic version of this song, while well done and emotionally recorded in the rain, gives off a sadder and more somber mood than the original. When singing lyrics like “What do you do when a man don’t love you / He takes the sun from the sky above you / How do you fix the damage / How do you break the habit / I never knew you could be so savage,” the 2017 full-instrumental version has more of the strong female power and sass that we expect from Lights. I personally feel as though that first version just conveys the emotion of the song more clearly, whereas the acoustic version shows her as vulnerable and weak to the subject of the song’s power.

Acoustic albums have been around for quite some time, and although a lot of artists seem to be straying away from putting out acoustic music, Skin&Earth Acoustic has seen great success already even though it has only been out for a couple of months. It is yet another creative and unique acoustic spin into what seems to be Lights’ specialty. Her acoustic tour to support the album sold out over half of the shows, including Toronto, Vancouver, New York and two shows in Los Angeles. You can expect a new project from Lights sometime very soon.

Written by: Cris Rulli

Photos courtesy of management