Lily Lyons – ‘Re-Open the World’ album review: thought daughters should start a revolution
Social media has a horrific tendency to make us over-analyse what are, truthfully, common characteristics of ourselves. One of those is the introspective female trope of the ‘thought daughter’ – but Lily Lyons is starting off by putting all her eggs in that very basket.
The Skinny: Re-Open the World, the debut album from London indie singer Lyons via Fiction Records, certainly carries more than enough of a narrative arc to display that its creator has a strong penchant for storytelling, weaving gritty reality with whimsical fantasy. Its ten songs all represent individual vignettes on womanhood, ranging from the mundane to the sublime, and are undercut with the patent inspiration of its muse, the feminist text The Vital Spark by Lisa Marchiano.
What then ensues over the course of the album is Lyons’ remarkable ability to turn the looking glass back in on herself, painting lyrical portraits that don’t shy away from displaying the warts amid the pretty melodies. It’s certainly a bold move to make as a debut artist, when she is clearly still getting to grips with her place in the world, let alone relaying it on a pedestal.
Yet between stark images of “hospital lights and blood pressure highs” on ‘Reaching’ to “waiting on the black curtain to fall” amid distorted visions on the standout ‘Only Lonely Person’, it’s clear she is hiding nothing.
The lyrical capacity for truth on the record is undoubtedly one of its greatest strengths, and an asset that will stand Lyons in good stead as she moves further in the industry. What somewhat lacks, however, is the same sense of ingenuity in the sonics. The droves of the thought daughter archetype have avalanched the music world in recent years, from Lucy Dacus to Ethel Cain and everyone in between, so much so that it means Lyons is left struggling to come up with anything other than a fairly generic melancholy indie sound amid these existing pillars.
The Verdict: An album like Re-Open the World, presenting an overtly feminised omnipresent view of everything, is clearly designed to capitalise on the wave of women dominating the current scene. As a debut effort, there’s no doubt that Lyons has the ability to soar – it’s just that she has one half of the deal down, while the other still needs a bit of pedalling.
Defining track: ‘Only Lonely Person’
Release date: October 31st, 2025 | Producer: Joel Pott | Label: Fiction
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