Lily Konigsberg

★★★★

Lily We Need To Talk Now

WHARF CAT. CD/DL/LP

Brooklynite’s brilliantly skewed indie-pop debut.

Brooklynbased Lily Konigsberg has been tweaking this solo debut since 2016, but it feels like it was crashed out in one perfectly honed blaze of avant-rock/pop glory yesterday. Stuffed with deathdefying hooks, Sweat Forever opens on a sunny melody courtesy of a resonant, wornin 12-string. A long-time love has ended. “I’m still here/Is that what you wanted?” trills

Konigsberg in dogged denial. That’s The Way I Like It delivers speedy smartass lyrics that spin on a dime, channelling Liz Phair, Aimee Mann or The Breeders’ Kim Deal, while staccato guitar serves up shirty Cars/Talking Heads vibes. Don’t Be Lazy With Me is astonishing, a languid, whispered alt-jazz plea: “Forget me not, but memorise me still…” And finally, acceptance: closing track True emerges on the other side, a liberated rock-out of pianosoaked vamping. Witty and moving, somewhere an indie movie needs this as a soundtrack.