Lydia Ainsworth – “Forever”
A year ago, the Toronto art-pop synthesist Lydia Ainsworth released her album Phantom Forest. Right now, Ainsworth is working on another album, and she’s experimenting more with live instruments rather than electronic ones. Today, we get some idea of how that might sound. Ainsworth has just dropped “Forever,” a new standalone single that may or may not foretell where she’s going with her next record.
Musically, “Forever” is a departure from the chilly, synthetic music of Ainsworth’s past. It’s a warm, sunny piece of music, full of bright guitars and layered-up harmonies. Ainsworth produced the song, and she’s made it sound a bit like friendly and juice-drink-commercial-ready ’90s pop-rock.
Lyrically, though, “Forever” is more concerned with the abstract. In a press release, Ainsworth says that “‘Forever’ is a song about an attempt at astral projection in order to be close to a loved one who is far away.” On the song, Ainsworth sings about loneliness and attempting to find companionship despite not being able to be physically close to someone: “Telepathic nights like this / Something flips a sudden switch and / I see it all/ I can see it all baby.” If you wanted, you could hear it as a sort of quarantine-era fantasy. Listen below.
“Forever” is out now, and you can get it from Bandcamp.