Following the success of his solo career and deciding to ride this new wave of creation. LAYKS has since garnered quite the following and has finally brought out their highly anticipated debut EP ‘Cry Baby’.
Inspired by Martin’s nature as a self-professed cry baby, he speaks of the ability to be vulnerable and empathic as one of humankind's greatest qualities and urges people to embrace that in themselves.
Not to say LAYKS’ music is too literal with that, instead, Martin guides us through love and heartbreak, not shying away from both the truly wonderful and the truly heart-breaking aspects of it.
Beginning with ‘Another Day’, the opener eases you in with the soft ambient alternative indie pop that Martin is known for. What's notable about LAYKS in particular is how well the vocals blend with the rest of the musical landscape (a mark of good production) but how they don’t get lost.
Martin has stand-out vocals without a doubt, helped by his mastery of both conveying passion and his soaring falsetto notes. And the synth solo that I wasn’t quite expecting, but I’m definitely not mad at, was an added bonus.
Following this, comes the romantic ‘Cowboy’. A song all about an old-world kind of love where chivalry and that little extra vulnerability ruled the day, it’ll have you “Square dancing under the stars” alright. By the way, never did I imagine I would particularly like anything with the words ‘square dancing’ in it, but here we are and it really fits. Martin’s harmonies accent the sweet lyrics and the falsetto notes serve to highlight the guitar.
A personal favourite of mine, ‘Walk Away’ is a sincerely heart-wrenching song about an inevitable end to a relationship. I love the vocals on this, they aren’t over the top but you can hear the passion in them and the lyrics manage to capture a really relatable and very complex feeling in a relatively short amount of time which is always commendable in my book. To usher us past the heartbreak, ‘Me and You’ comes sweeping in with a very John Mayer feeling guitar riff, described by Martin as ‘the cutest song’ he’s ever written. And you can see why he calls it that: painting a warm image of coffee and closeness and all things sweet really, ‘Me and You’ is definitely the fan favourite so far.
Last but certainly not least we get a stripped version of ‘Cowboy’ which LAYKS has somehow managed to make sound like an entirely different song, lending an ephemeral quality with floating guitar.
So hey, what are you waiting for? Go through all the layers of emotion with LAYKS, you’ll feel a lot better once you do.
Chloe Boehm
Image: ‘Cry Baby’ official cover artwork
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