Dream pop artist Leezy’s album Metanoia is a journey through paradoxes, chaos, and healing, accompanied by a hauntingly beautiful sonic quality and emotional rawness. The songs have a smoky and intoxicating stamp, one in which dreamy instrumentals leave space for an ethereal production and masterful storytelling. Leezy guides listeners through a journey that stretches dream pop beyond the aesthetic – in which her breathy, delicate vocals are accompanied by immersive rhythms.
The rising artist commits to an exceptional note of vulnerability from start to finish; she is authentically raw in describing her experiences with toxic relationships, self-loathing, and addiction. As listeners, we get to know her on a more personal level than we would most people around us – an imperfect human, a young woman who is not afraid to call the ugly and rotten for what it is and learn from it.
In “Cocaine Kisses”, Leezy romanticizes the feeling of addiction to substances and people, in a desperate and heart-breaking electro-melodic longing for losing herself. The same stamp is carried onto the first single, “Girls Like You,” a ballad equal parts dreamy, sensual, and touching that explores sexuality, confusion, and unrequited love. The intensity and depth of Leezy’s emotional world are unfolded in the introspective masterpiece “Monsters Are Waiting,” in which inner-child healing overlooks a loss of innocence. The track’s ominous nature hangs above it with a sense of inevitability – a cinematic experience when paired with the artist’s lyrics. The second single from the album, “Sierra,” gives the perfect closure for the album in a burst of emotional catharsis where timid piano moments blend with a powerful drums-led climax.
Metanoia makes its way through Leezy’s hardships through a bold and passionate tone, making sense of chaos with a distinctive honesty and vulnerability that draws the listener in. “Though my music is heavily inspired by my own experiences,” she says, “I would hope that the general themes can be relatable for everyone in some way”. As it emerges as a beautifully haunting masterpiece, Metanoia has cinematic caliber, embracing atmospheric and ethereal sounds threatened by darker, raw emotions; Leezy’s introspection is rewarded in a tale of power imbalances, overcoming addiction, finding healing through loved ones and self-forgiveness.
