I was born too late for 8-tracks and vinyl and cassettes were in their heyday when I could use my hard earned chore money to buy music. Often I purchased cassette singles as they were cheaper than a full album on a cassette or vinyl and they often held B-side that wouldn’t be on the cassette or album.
Why am I discussing cassette singles?
Lilac Haze that’s why.
With her debut double single, the Bath based artist let me travel back in time to my younger music years. Not just for the memory of the cassette single but the vibe of the two songs are dimensional in both time and space.
Lilac Haze is the project name for singer songwriter, Katrina Swift. Influenced by the likes of The Cure, All About Eve, Eva Cassidy, and Fleetwood Mac, Lilac Haze gives dreamy 80’s romance clouded in tones and textures of love lost, romance, and the one that got away.
If Lilac Haze had been around, John Hughes would have had “The Ghost That I Once Knew” playing over the main character’s realisation that the person they actually fell for was their best friend.
“The Ghost That I Once Knew” is dripping in nostalgia for someone, something that is no longer attainable. When I first listened to the song, I heard pitches of early Jewel. Lilac Haze’s voice is ethereal, delicate, fragile, and lost. It allows the listener to get lost and to find themselves on the other side perhaps healed of something that may have broken them.
On the flip side, “Lilac Haze” gives a sense of foreboding gloom of slowly losing someone. The vocals and the music is haunting and wraps the listener in a loving fear. This is the type of song that one hears a ghost humming. It’s lovely and chilling at the same time.
Of the song, the artist says,
In December 2021, I wrote Ghost after a period of self-reflection during a time when I felt unsure and lost in my new surroundings. It’s a reflection of the loss of innocence as we mature…a farewell to your old self. ‘Lilac Haze’ however is a song written for anyone who has been affected by loved ones lost to Alzheimer’s and Dementia.
The debut singles were produced by Calum Wotherspoon (Nightswimming) and mastered by Adam Ayan (Paul McCartney, Lana Del Ray, Carrie Underwood). Further teaming up with Nightswimming’s Sam Allan on guitars and Torin Moore on drums, the duo provide the musical mystery and atmosphere to Liliac Haze’s vocals.
Fall in love with Lilac Haze below
