“[what we say in private] uses heartbreak as the springboard for an innovative brand of indie rock that’s both fiery and introspective.”
Pitchfork
“Depth, experience and mystery to her bedroom pop.”
The Guardian
Album Of The Week
The Line Of Best Fit
“Sensational.”
The Sunday Times
“Untogether in a brilliantly organised way.”
Mojo
“Ada Lea explores the full spectrum of human emotion, with a lyrical rawness that is both disarming and life-affirming.”
Bandcamp
“An exciting debut.”
Uncut
“Each track has something unexpected up its sleeve; this is indie-rock songwriting at its finest.”
CLASH
“Often, [Ada Lea’s] songs end up revealing the strange and weird thoughts grief and transition can bring out of us, feeling all the more honest and real in its chaos.”
The FADER
Today, Montreal’s Ada Lea (the moniker of Alexandra Levy) presents a new single/video “hurt,” her first new piece of music since 2020’s woman, here EP. “hurt” lives in a snowy Montreal winter, a city that Levy calls home and lives and breathes through her music. It thrums with bass and brooding keys, as Levy uses frank language and imagery: “somebody hurt me badly, now I’m stuck in a rut / now I don’t know my body / I could say it or say nothing at all / take a walk or take none at all / get on a bus back to Montreal / tell my friends or say nothing at all.” When the song hits its peak, her voice is carried by a swirl of strings and quick-tempoed keys. In the accompanying video, directed by Monse Muro, Levy sits at a decorated table, awash in desaturated colors. Peculiar images and colours flash through as the song grows in intensity.
“I wanted to find a way to communicate complicated feelings using the simplest language possible,” says Levy. “I came with a narrative and removed almost every detail, so as not to obfuscate the feeling – but left it open in terms of a resolution: was this hurt necessarily a bad thing?”
Watch Ada Lea’s Video for “hurt”
“hurt” follows Levy’s woman, here EP (2020) and her debut, what we say in private (2019), a collection of raw, confessional, and at times messy emotions, presented through beautifully colorful pop songs. “hurt” is a first taste of what’s to come.
Ada Lea online:
