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By Gannopy Urena
2 min read
I came across Layzi on a poster for a show at the Rockwell I saw on Cambridge Street. Carissa Myre, the person behind Layzi, is a meteoric rising star here in Boston. Layzi started releasing music on Spotify in 2020, performed their first live shows in 2021, and has already performed at the Boston Music Awards and has been signed to the music label Spirit Goth.
Layzi currently has 3,079 monthly listeners on Spotify and 2,953 followers on Instagram. They literally make bedroom pop, as in Layzi creates all of their songs out of their bedroom. Layzi’s latest EP, “What’s Left to Lose'' was released on November 10, 2021.
The songs on “What’s Left to Lose” are what I want to listen to while crying in the shower or taking a long, pensive walk. The lo-fi, calming vibe of the EP created by the elements of Layzi’s bell-like, calming voice and the vintage inspired instrumentals make me want to deeply reflect upon everything. While the entire EP is clearly vintage inspired, “If U Want Me 2” and “WL2L” sound like updated 80’s love ballads.
What I like about Layzi in particular is how they managed to capture the lo-fi, calm, indie pop vibe but still created something I can kind of dance to. I personally hate when songs are torturously slow. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Clairo’s “Sling” and “What’s Left to Lose” is more of what I wanted that album to sound like.
I’m usually not a person who pays attention to lyrics at all but there are some lines throughout this E.P. that jumped out at me. “Nothing Ever Feels Right” is a track that is so poignant and relatable after the past year full of stress and disease and turmoil. The lines “I feel dead and lost inside my head” “why do I waste my time” and “it’s probably because I don’t sleep enough” really hit home for me.
In my favorite song off of the EP, “Shoes” Layzi sings “I’m so tired” over and over again. The instrumental melody in this song is so engaging and catchy I feel like I might catch myself singing it instead of the vocals of the song in the next few weeks. I deeply relate being inescapably tired looking back across the year, but especially since Daylight Savings Time kicked in.
Layzi is an amazing bedroom pop project and I hope to see them climb up the same rapid trajectory to success they have ridden over the past year.
*Originally published in-print in Boston Compass Newspaper #142 January 2022