Never Really You CD

Ponderous melodies darken with distortion and a downturned aesthetic in Never Really You, the new LP by Los Angeles vocalist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Toy Light. A deep foray into the tragic conflict between fate and free will, the noir alt-rock album is the first release on the artist’s new label Kissproof.

“I was inspired to make an album that would translate live in a simple but intense way,” shares Walker Ashby, aka Toy Light. “A big choice was to limit the palate of sounds to guitar, bass, vocals, drums, and to write in traditional song structures. I wanted to be as direct as possible.”

Wistful moans and murmurs shudder under sludgy sonic fogs. Tracks swerve between gaping emotions, from existential anxiety and modern melancholia to hopeful resignation and quiet despair.

Title track “Never Really You” siphons garage rock riffs through bleary-eyed 90s grunge, driving home the dissonance of “shapeshifting, reincarnation, a personality disorder, or anything that makes one feel alien in their own skin,” Ashby explains. “Foreshadow” touches a sliver of hope through its lament, accepting the inevitable with open eyes and a fluid haze. Torture takes its time in “How You Sleep,” a brooding lullaby of longing.

Life is a tragic play and Never Really You is its soundtrack, a walking shadow that reveals the raw beauty and poetic ennui of authentic introspection.

Never Really You by Toy Light is out now via Ashby’s new Kissproof imprint on digital formats and CD worldwide.