Le Youth paints a nostalgic image of ‘Reminders’ through debut This Never Happened album
Dating back to the end of 2019, Le Youth has consistently remained a familiar face on This Never Happened. But between a slew of EPs like Aquiver and Waves, remixes like his “The Rope” reimagining, and collaborations like “Skipping Stones” with Sultan + Shepard to his credit, he’d still yet to climb the album mountain. But at the beginning of February, Le Youth revealed that Lane 8 had called him back to just do that, with the road to Reminders officially beginning. With his coinciding debut album run currently nearing its finish line, Le Youth has officially delivered Reminders in its entirety.
Le Youth had explained that on the surface, the meaning behind Reminders seems self-explanatory to some, but that its message travels much deeper than what meets the sonic eye. Grounded on “feelings of nostalgia and unexpected memories, like remembering a past life when [he turned] down that street [he] used to live on, or hearing that album [he] stayed up all night listening to,” Reminders spans 15 tracks—along with a quartet of extended mixes—that give more weight to the argument that Le Youth sits at the summit of the melodic house game.
Four distinctive insights into Reminders were given on the walk to May 27, including “Lighthouse” with RBBTS, “Dreaming” with Tailor, “Pattern” with Sultan + Shepard and Emily Falvey, and ultimately “Hang On” with Gordi. And of the remaining 11 constituents on Reminders, most eyes would immediately move towards “If Only (You Could Be Here)” alongside both OCULA and Nathan Nicholson, which doubled as the magnetic entrance into Lane 8’s “Spring 2022 Mixtape.” That was one of four album IDs that made their debut through the label helmer’s seasonal outing, with “See You Everywhere,” “Feel Around You” with Leyet, and “Damaged” also being previously recognizable album cuts. The Reminders tracklist also sees Sultan + Shepard make a secondary showing on “New Love” with Panama as well as helping hands from VEHA and MØØNE on “Skin of Gold,” all of which provide their own vantage points on the LP’s overarching theme of reflection through carefully chiseled pieces of outrightly sublime melodic house.
Stream Le Youth’s freshman album Reminders in full below.
Featured image: Hoss Photographry
Categories: Music