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Album reviews Music

Lydia Ainsworth

Rating: NNNN


Singer/composer/producer/former music student Lydia Ainsworth’s debut full-length is the result of three years spent composing and recording in bedrooms and basements in Toronto, Montreal and Brooklyn, chilling under the radar. For better and for worse, she eschews the buzz cycle that fuels so many careers these days.

So Right From Real feels totally unexpected and refreshing. A one-woman orchestra, Ainsworth layers flourishing string sections (cello and violins), piano interludes, startling synth lines and primal drumming with her graceful, spellbinding vocals, which she samples until they’re unrecognizable. Whenever it gets too neat and tidy, she throws it off balance, inserting an off-kilter beat or glitch effect. This is experimental pop music that will appeal to both the fickle indie crowd and the mainstream. Currently playing loft parties in Montreal, Ainsworth is likely to play Massey Hall one day.

Top track: Hologram

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