Being dubbed a sensation of synth-pop to many, LIGHTS had quite a pressure to follow up her 2009 release ‘The Listening’. While it was good, it seemed a relatively standard release for the genre musically, although well executed. With the initial release of her follow up ‘Siberia’ being late last year, the album finally sees itself being officially dropped in the UK and we’re presented with a more dynamic and more enjoyable offering than its predecessor.
 Vocally, she is simply sublime on this record. Teaming her synth backdrops with a delicate vocal overlay, she often allows the music to take the foreground. With her dubstep experimentation evident throughout, she’s avoided the cliché of the genre by overusing harsh beats and more aggressive and loud vocals. If anything, she brings an eerie beauty to an otherwise in-your-face flaunt of music.
‘Banner’ is a perfect example of this phenomenon. Her vocals are light and airy throughout but even at her most powerful points she still appears surrounded by the music, rather than trying to outperform it. Her lead single from the release ‘Toes’ takes her candy-floss style synth, her classic vocal stylings and adds some crunch with thicker beats. It’s emblematic of the entire record in a sense: there’s just an extra, rougher layer added to her delicate music through dubstep. She’s still present as we’ve known her, but there’s that added something to make it more interesting.
‘Timing Is Everything’ opens innocently with more cutesy flourishes before a beat throws a down and dirty layer into the mix, the kind of sound that – should it be played by electric guitar – would give rock ‘n’ roll its dirty feel. ‘Flux and Feel’ is the prominent track of recommendation for fans of the dubstep genre; here, the beats aren’t as restrained, yet still don’t present the typical harsh attack. In fact, it is – at points – reminiscent of a lighter ‘Get Up’ by Korn, but that’s purely based on the experimentation with the same sounds.
The album as a whole pays testament to a few things. First of all, Lights has progressed greatly from her first release. She still encompasses a lot of what she was loved for from her previous release but she’s openly pushed herself in a new direction. Dubstep is a musical marmite to many, but it’s one that many musicians are trying their luck with and – personally, at least – this isn’t a bad thing.
Secondly, while the music industry is being oversaturated by the use of dubstep at present, Lights finds a fine balance. Yes, she embraces it throughout the record, but it is not a dubstep record - it’s a Lights record that features dubstep. At no point does it feel like the classic dub-anthems contaminating nightclubs across the country. It’s eloquent, delicate and it works with her sound.
Overall, ‘Siberia’ is a good release. As a recommendation, if you don’t mind dubstep then this is a good release because it’s never forced onto you. If you like synth-pop with a twist, this is for you. If you like Lights – well, this is obviously for you. Artists need to progress from album to album to avoid stagnating and while some people go mad with it, Lights has done a great job at moving forward without losing herself in the process.
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