★★★★☆
Lola Young sets out her stall as a bold new force on her debut album, My Mind Wanders and Sometimes Leaves Completely. Read our review.“I turn the lights down, throw the towel in and feel pretty much nothing”, 22-year-old Lola Young croons on the opening track to her debut album, My Mind Wanders And Sometimes Leaves Completely. Young captures the numb mood of gen-Z vividly, and it’s one already weary of love, life, consumerism, the internet and everything in between. The hymnal ‘Stream Of Consciousness’ is probably one of the saddest – and best – tracks you’ll hear all year. “This isn’t a stream of consciousness,” Young sings. “This is more like a big fat fucking no one asked.” BRIT school-alumni Young has worked with some heavy hitters on this one – like Adele collaborator Paul Epworth and frequent Frank Ocean favourite Malay – but her’s is a distinctive sound that’s rooted in the darkness of the inner-city. She frequently fuses jazz with hip-hop, pop with spoken word elements (think The Streets’ Mike Skinner), and her music digs deep into far-ranging themes like loneliness, depression, capitalism and cheating – sometimes all in the same song. “The child in me has been and gone”, Young sings at the start of an album that pains its way from innocence to experience at light speed. There are empty nights at clubs, late-night car rides and lonely days with a young woman desperate for love and hoping there’s more to life than what’s currently on offer. “There’s 21 reasons as to why I’m here / But like 99 reasons as to why they’re just no meaning (that’s quite depressing),” she quietly explores on ‘Stream Of Consciousness’.


Photo: Charlotte Patmore