‘Take me to your darkest place on our holiday’: Le Ren’s new album is an invitation to total honesty

Le Ren has announced her second album Don’t Be Funny Without Me, due 28th August, led by new single ‘Free Wheeling’.

The Canadian songwriter, born Lauren Spear, released her debut Leftovers in 2021 and spent the following years touring extensively, opening for Jeff Tweedy, Devendra Banhart and Men I Trust. She returned home to Mountain Grove, Ontario with a clear sense of what she wanted to make next.

The new album was produced by Spear herself alongside Fez Gielen and Jonas Bonetta, the Ontario musician known for his work as Evening Hymns. Working from her home province gave the sessions a grounding and directness that her earlier work, strong as it was, did not quite reach.

‘Free Wheeling’ arrives as an exhortation towards openness: unhurried, unguarded and built around the image of being taken somewhere unfamiliar. “Take me to your darkest place / On our holiday / Ya, I want to see it all,” Spear sings, establishing the album’s emotional intent from its opening bars.

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Don’t Be Funny Without Me spans ten tracks and is out 28th August.

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