After the haunting “My Name Is Safe in Your Mouth” (2018) and the dramatic, synth-loaded “Who the Power” (2020), Liela Moss’ has a new album “Internal Working Model” bristles with frustration at our disconnected culture but also – crucially – burns with a desire to reconnect – in her own words: “We see the beneficiaries of the status quo suppress realness and wellbeing by selling you a banal alternative that upholds their agenda. I want to add to the firepower to burn that old house down.”
“I was working with Johnny Hostile on extra instrumentation for this track, when he sent it back with a middle 8 vocal section written and sung by his partner Jehnny Beth,” says The Duke Spirit’s Liela Moss of the track “Ache in the Middle” which is on her upcoming solo album. “He emailed saying she loved the track and hoped I didn’t mind her spontaneous contribution? This was a real gift, some unexpected beauty. The track crystallizes my thoughts about some of my own childhood, ideas about attachment and my recent work with Children’s Social Care. Jehnny Beth must have somehow understood where I was with this personal process, because she jumped straight in with a complimentary lyrical flow.”
With Moss’ expressive voice leading the way over fractious synth backdrops, the result is at once tense and tender, timeless and timely; determined to plug into positivity wherever it can be found. Personal and expansive, galvanic and inquisitive, it’s an album that sees the modern world’s mess through open eyes but isn’t willing to stop there: it wants to seek out solutions, source the potential in other ways of being and seeing.
Moss’ new album, “Internal Working Model“, is out January 13th via PIAS and also features guest Gary Numan.
The Fat Angel Sings 