Lydia Ainsworth – Into The Blue

Lydia Ainsworth’s debut album, 2014’s ‘Right From Real’, was pieced together from two EPs of material. On the one hand it showcased her ability to create eerie electronic soundscapes, while on the other she demonstrated she was capable of arranging ornate, luscious string arrangements. Her upcoming follow-up, ‘Darling Of The Afterglow,’ started life while Ainsworth was far away from her hometown of Toronto, but eventually she returned to fully realise her vision, surrounded by an environment she was comfortable with. Her latest single ‘Into The Blue’ isn’t entirely calming in tone, mixing together glacial synth tones and sweeps of grand electronic strings, but it does show off how Ainsworth is getting more and more comfortable bringing the two sides of the coin shown on ‘Right From Real’ together. It still maintains some of her more experimental tendencies, her voice chopped and pitch-shifted in various places, and she drops a tiny bit of EDM in there without completely changing the brooding tone of the track. It’s Ainsworth’s most confident and attention-grabbing foray into dark, moody electropop yet, and she sounds completely at home doing it.