Lia Ices, one of our favorite NYC chanteuses (featured on the cover of the 25th issue of The Deli in 2011) is finally back with her long awaited sophomore album, and, well… it sounds nothing like the debut one that grabbed our tortured hearts. But change and experimentation are necessary in music, and in this record – entitled simply "ICES" – Lia abandons the spare, deeply intense ballad format that characterized her early career in favor of more lighthearted, lo(wer)-fi pop tunes that embrace many world influences, Caribbean ones in particular – we are thinking more about Calipso than reggae. The vacation related imagery in this new video for single "Higher" confirm how "ICES" can be filed under the ‘beach pop album’ category. Since it’s dropping at the end of the summer, it might help us extend the perception of the warm season through sound induced nostalgia, or maybe even make us dream of that trip through exotic lands we never took. Don’t miss her live tomorrow (09.17) at The Mercury Lounge.
