A6

On her aptly titled sixth album, 2025s A6, Valerie Poxleitner, aka Lights, offers a slight shift on her hooky dance-pop, conjuring a moody, 80s new wave atmosphere. The record, which follows her infectious 2022 album Pep, finds the Canadian singer/songwriter in an introspective state of mind. Having debuted with 2009s sweet-toned The Listening, Poxleitner has matured over the years, and her electronic-infused pop (she also puts out a companion acoustic version of each of her albums) has grown ever more musically and lyrically ambitious. If Peps kaleidoscopic colors worked to springboard Poxleitner out of the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, then A6 feels like the other side of that pop uplift, a monochrome return to the realities and difficulties of everyday life. Theres a sense that Poxleitner is taking stock of her emotional health, perhaps rethinking relationships, her career, and past traumas. Its a cathartic attitude she underscores on "Surface Tension," singing, "Hows it feel when it falls out of focus?/Hows it feel when nobody even notice?/F*ck love, f*ck friends, f*ck showbiz." Built around a dusky, effects-laden bass groove and whip-crack dance beat, the song deftly evokes the melodic 80s alt-pop of bands like the Cure and New Order. She carries that aesthetic throughout all of A6, sustaining an after-hours goth dance club vibe on cuts like "Alive Again," "Damage," and "White Paper Palm Trees." At the center of A6s black lipstick-stained, glitter-goth atmosphere is Poxleitner with her throaty coo, sounding as vulnerable and utterly in charge as ever. ~ Matt Collar