it’s here it’s yours — welcome to the world, baby https://t.co/R7KuDBnAW9

— Fenne Lily (@FenneLily) September 18, 2020

Lockdown swirls around Breach. Although, in this instance, it is Lily’s self-enforced, pre-pandemic period of isolation in Berlin that drew an album out of her. Nonetheless, now we all have a sense of how that probably felt.

The album opens with the whispering of ‘To Be a Woman Pt 1.’, which encapsulates the series of expansive themes that Breach flirts with. This is followed by the first two of Breach’s singles, ‘Alapathy’ and ‘Berlin’.

In isolation, ‘Berlin’ was a great single. As the third track of the album it is little less than perfect. At just fifteen lines, you can’t help but be reminded of one of those fragmentary tracks like ‘Wish You Were Here’, where every word is precious. It was composed out of voice notes that Lily managed to recover after a phone crisis during the trip.

Lily lets us all the way into her thought process. Like being inside your own brain, it makes complete sense and no sense at all. ‘I, Nietzsche’ is perhaps the best example of this; it circles around all its own points. By contrast, the latest single, ‘Solipsism’, is a fresh burst of energy – it is certainly one of Breach’s standout moments.

Following ‘Solipsism’ is one of the most memorable tracks on Breach: ‘I Used To Hate My Body But Now I Just Hate You’. The universality of this song translates into lines such as, “I read all of the books you recommended / I listened to your friend’s band all the time.” As the chorus builds for the first time, into the titular sentiment, you feel Lily regaining her autonomy with every word.

This is one of the ways that Lily’s new, cynical, honest voice comes through. It’s a fantastic take on a break-up song – it’s not comfortable or easy or tragic, but rather challenging. It turns heart-ache upside down and inside out to get to its very core: the song is heavy with self-questioning and monotony, but it is relatively free of bigger, existential questions about break-ups. The outro reaches great heights, and the final half line reasserts a note of triumph and control.

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there are 1,271 words on this record but it’s hard to find the right ones to send it into the world with. I’ve been waiting for this day to come for a long time and it feels surreal to say that BREACH is yours now — every side of love and pain reduced down to two. my dad used to call me a tiny warrior and that’s how I feel about this record — I hope it gives you something. it’s given me a lot. there’s no way it would’ve happened without the following people : @slonkslonkslonk @joshuadavidsparks @alichant @brian.deck @hollyshay @rfjaffe @deadoceans @joncoombs @lucydacus @luxtonluxtonluxton @nicoleloucaides and my little orchestra — thank you big time

A post shared by Fenne Lily (@fennelily) on Sep 18, 2020 at 3:54am PDT

Breach starts to wind down here, starting with ’98, a touching audio clip from Lily’s childhood. Situated between ‘I Used To Hate My Body…’ and ‘Someone Elses’ Trees’, it is perfectly placed to reinject a note of nostalgia. Generally, Lily is one of those people who finds their magic in the everyday; toothbrushes, cold baths and laundry all work together to cover much vaster ground.

Many reviews have noted that where Lily was struggling to be alone with herself on her previous album, she has confronted this from every angle. The album comes with a statement from Lily declaring that she no longer needs to “fixate on relationships to make myself feel like I have something to talk about.” A previous press release spoke about Lily was working out the difference between “being alone and being lonely.” 

 On Instagram, she touchingly described Breach as a “tiny warrior”, something her dad used to say about her. Somewhere between “tiny warrior” and “I used to hate my body” – where “used to” is emphatic – and the fragments of ‘Berlin’ and ‘To Be A Woman Pt. 1’, Lily is excavating as many answers as she is raising questions.

‘Solipsism’ must be eligible for some kind of shortlist of Singles Containing the Most Complicated Ideas, and to that end you need to know that solipsism is “the view or theory that the self is all that can be known to exist.” Hey, absolutely no shame if you didn’t know that – I studied English for three years and I had to google it! I only say it, because it’s essential to understand the level of self-absorption running through Lily’s theme – it makes the moment where all the supermarket products turn into brands with her face on so much better.

As Lily starts to really spiral into herself and her solipsism, she begins hallucinating. Moments later, everybody in the supermarket falls away to the side and dies dramatically (including a cameo of her dad). It’s a three-minute masterpiece.

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hustle brand

A post shared by Fenne Lily (@fennelily) on Aug 24, 2020 at 3:35pm PDT

Lily declared in the press release that she wanted ‘Solipsisim’ to be “something that sounded cheerful, about something really not cheerful.”  This is exactly the sense you get, because Lily has constructed a whole experience out of doing a standard shop (eggs, cocoa powder, cling film) which becomes less and less comfortable.

The music is energetic but the vocals are slow and intimate. The shop becomes a whole basket of bananas, tomato soup becomes banana soup. In the same press release, she said of the energy in the video, “a lot of situations make me uncomfortable — some parties, most dates, every time I’m stoned in the supermarket.”

In all this hallucinating, Lily starts to see herself in all of the products. This include finding her great pink hair on a tuna as the logo for a brand of tinned tuna (in banana sauce), and a cleaning product called ‘Breach: Seriously Tight Riffs’. All of this only adds to the vividness of the video. For anyone who does most of their thinking in a supermarket, this one’s for you.

‘Solipsism’ is the third single in the build up to ‘Breach’s release in September. It follows ‘Berlin’, which has a more acoustic sound, and ‘Alapathy’. Alongside the video, Lily announced a European tour for 2021; dates are below. You can also catch her at her weekly Instagram live series, The Bathtime Show.

30/04/2021 – Grand Salon – Brussells, BE
01/05 – Bitterzoet – Amsterdam, NL
03/05 – Nochtspeicher – Hamburg, DE
04/05 – Ideal Bar – Copenhagen, DK
06/05 – Frannz – Berlin, DE
07/05 – Mila – Munich, DE
08/05 – Exil – Zurich, SE
09/05 – Magnolia – Milan, IT
11/05 – Das Bett – Frankfurt, DE
12/05 – Le Pop Up – Paris, FR
17/05 – The Cookie – Leicester, UK
18/05 – Phase One – Liverpool, UK
19/05 – The Workman’s Club – Dublin, IE
21/05 – Brudenell Social Club – Leeds, UK
22/05 – King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut – Glasgow, UK
23/05 – Dead Wax – Birmingham, UK
25/05 – Deaf Institute – Manchester, UK
26/05 – Omeara – London, UK
27/05 – The Portland Arms – Cambridge, UK
28/05 – Thekla – Bristol, UK

Derived from the words ‘apathy’ and ‘allopathic’, ‘Alapathy’ uses lyrics such as “Validate my fervency/To be so bound never looked so free/Allopathic remedies for now”. Describing her experience trying to let go of her thoughts using ‘allopathic remedies’, the artist uses enigmatic wordplay as is typical of her writing style, combining folk and rock music to tell her story; one which many relate to.

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my second album BREACH comes out on September 18th and you can listen to the first single Alapathy now – link upstairs. my parents like it and I hope you will too Artwork @nicoleloucaides

A post shared by Fenne Lily (@fennelily) on Jun 23, 2020 at 6:01am PDT

The music video, directed by Benjamin Brook, was also released, receiving almost 6,000 views. Given Lily’s Instagram caption when announcing the video, it seems that it was filmed while social distancing due to the coronavirus: “Directed by @benbro.ok and other masked folk.” The video timelessly shows Fenne Lily riding her bike around Bristol, out into forest and countryside, ending by running nude through a field.

‘BREACH’, the album for which ‘Alapathy’ was written, will be released later this year and will consist of thirteen tracks. The album contains themes of loneliness; as Lily explained in a press release, it “deals largely with loneliness, and trying to work out the difference between being alone and being lonely.”

She also described her journey from her first album ‘On Hold’ to now, saying, “I realised that I am comfortable in myself, and I don’t need to fixate on relationships to make myself feel like I have something to talk about.”

‘On Hold’ came out in 2018, just two years after she began playing her music in venues around Bristol. Now signed to Dead Oceans record label, Lily has already shared two singles this year - ‘Hypochondriac’ and ‘To Be A Woman Pt. 2′.

Find the full track-list for ‘BREACH’ below.

1. To Be A Woman Pt.1
2. Alapathy
3. Berlin
4. Elliot
5. I, Nietzche
6. Birthday
7. Blood Moon
8. Solipsism
9. I Used To Hate My Body But Now I Just Hate You
10. 98
11. Someone Else’s Trees
12. Moody Ghost
13. Laundry and Jet Lag