REMEMBER THE FUTURE

Coming off the back of last year’s EVERYONE AFRAID TO BE FORGOTTEN album, feature film, and her longest ever tour routing, it was a surprise to even her own label that ionnalee would deliver another full‐length LP this year. Despite what appears to have been an intense 15 months of independent touring and production for Lee, REMEMBER THE FUTURE is perhaps just the perfect resolution of that, a huge artistic payoff, and an album we all need right now. The title, both political and emotional, addresses the two main cores of this record: a battle for the future, and a signal to not lose hope — both of these messages calling at an important time in both Lee’s, and our planet’s history.

The opening track airily ascends the album with a series of melodic, inhales and exhales that bare resemblance to iamamiwhoami’s 2014 single, “fountain”. “Now I watch it all slip away, with my hands untied as the sky bleed red”, “OPEN SEA” soars out of space, with vocal reverbs that drift back home. The track finally arrives at disco of punchy synths that’s paired with a serene tiding of Lee’s lyrical echoes. Track two introduces the more experimental direction of this album, starting with a spacey drift that guides you through a robotic‐like monologue, embellished with chilling background vocal recordings, that fans of early iamamiwhoami deep‐cuts will warm to. Eventually, “WIPE IT OFF” realises itself as a bass‐driven pop anthem that resembles some of the electronic highlights one might find on Robyn’s 2010 LP, Body Talk, before jolting into a funky galactic dance floor jam that leads you into the third track.

At “SOME BODY”, we reach arguably the most pop‐focused piece on this LP, but Lee doesn’t steer too much towards traditional pop structures. Its verses drive the song forward, but the rest of the track gives way to a more laid‐back, hypnotic chorus. And it’s these hypnotic qualities that are fortified throughout the visuals supporting this song, as ionnalee dances inside a warping spiral, with the refrain “why won’t you let me talk ’bout the sadness of tomorrow?”.

“MATTERS” apocalyptic siren is met with Zola Jesus’ vocals as a welcoming hand‐hold on the barren synth‐driven planet Lee paints for us. A downward spiral of vocal harmonisations positions this track as sort of offering or plea. After “ISLANDER”s thumping march into the second half of this LP, we’re lead into a garden of reverb where this album’s title track takes place. Here, Lee illusively pulls us back and forth between emotions — “And I hate that I can’t help, and that it’s fact, not fantasy. It’s these thoughts they’re all we have, but the future’s still unseen”.

On “CRYSTAL”, this emotion is thematically resolved as pure crystalline bliss, but the lyrics once again pull it back to a place of emptiness and desperation. Jennie Abrahamson’s vocals build on the already ultras weetness of Lee’s, taking this track to Fever Ray levels of wickedness.

“RACE AGAINST” comes straight from the soundtrack of your favourite vintage sci‐fi — broken apart with pitched and chopped vocals that cry and chant “race against — human repent”, like something you’d find off of Mac Quayle or Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s dark TV scores. “SILENCE MY DRUM” appears to build itself as a tearful trance hit, before giving over a hard‐hitting Com Truise‐like instrumentation, and vocal bridges that are reminiscent of Lykke Li’s latest pop offerings: “Cutting knives as my back turns your way, I turn around and you smile it’s okay.”

Lee teams up with Röyksopp for a slow dance through Blue Velvet’s “MYSTERIES OF LOVE”, before closing on one of the album’s catchier highlights, giving an unexpected shift that is lifted by Lee’s empowering lower register. “i KEEP” here is a powerful end reminder, a step‐back, and a note to look after oneself in a time where the future needs you to be present.

Overall, REMEMBER THE FUTURE is ionnalee’s most cohesive body of work, yet continues to surprise and delight with elements even long‐time fans will be startled by. Lee continues to push the strengths of her production and vocal abilities, crafting a glimmering beacon of light amid these dark times. REMEMBER THE FUTURE is out May 31 via Lee’s own label, To whom it may concern.