‘Don’t You See Me Trying’: Erin LeCount just keeps getting better
Every now and then you witness an artist who is undeniably, unarguably bound for greatness. Right now, the clearest example has to be Erin LeCount, who, ever since switching to self-producing her own music, has been taking the world by storm.
Each and every time we talk about LeCount, the story is the same. The tale of her success is a life lesson in sticking to your guns and trusting your vision, as while her music had promise before, there is no coincidence that the skyrocketing of her sound and potential has come in correlation with the moment she decided to go DIY.
Now, LeCount writes, records and produces her own music with the majority being done in a shed at the bottom of her garden. But don’t get it wrong – this is not garden shed music. From the small space and from her own self-taught skills, the songs LeCount is releasing get bigger and bigger each and every time, and by now, ‘Don’t You See Me Trying’ feels genuinely stadium-sized.
It makes me feel like a broken record. There’s very little to say about the artist that Far Out hasn’t already screamed from the rooftops along with her fast-growing cult of fans who are set to fill out London’s Roundhouse later this year, but each and every time she releases a new song, hitting play comes with bated breath. When an artist has potential like this, but also such a vast array of influences from the lushness of Florence and the Machine to a deep love of the weird work of Björk, you never know what you’re going to get. On just her last few singles along, ‘808 Hymn’ was a high octane speed chase of a track, while ‘Machine Ghost’ was like a prayer and ‘I Believe’ was a pure alt-pop banger.
‘Don’t You See Me Trying’ feels like them all at once, housing LeCount’s richest chorus to date but also one of her most intriguing song structures as it builds, soars, collapses, goes underground, builds again – but not in the typical set-up.
It is clear that LeCount has nailed the golden balance of making tracks that are both interesting and endlessly catchy, and that alone will put her on a path to greatness. But when she’s doing it all on her own terms, keeping full control to ensure these tunes make the exact right sonic world for her meaning, that tight tying of message, feeling and sound is impactful to the furthest degree as as her production skills keep getting better, so too does the music. With her next EP, Pareidolia, set for release on February 27th, the next step up is incoming.
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