I want you to listen to Siberia, the new album by Lights. Why? Because I think you might like it. Someone said the same to me recently, and I reacted as you are likely kneejerk-reacting right now.

Lights, you say, that’s that tatted-out Canadian tweeny-bop-pop chick whose single (and cheesy music video) “Drive My Soul” was played straight into the ditch over on the KiSS 92.5s , XM 2s and MuchMusics of the world. You heard the song by accident, probably surfing during commercials, and, like me, wrote off the singer as disposable by design. Her breathless and airy voice recalled some sort of manufactured space lovechild of Bieber, Clarkson and Cyrus…or, worse, Black: a matter of production over talent.

If I’m coming across as biased, it’s because I am. Newsflash: We all are. For the record(s), on my iPod right now, playlists include Radiohead, Beastie Boys, Led Zeppelin, Rural Alberta Advantage and Foo Fighters. So, yes, not Lights’ target demo.

How did I end up at a recent Lights concert? That’s a whole other story. But I was there, reluctantly, and today, here, is the first time I’ve admitted it. The audience was filled with kids who didn’t have a clue about the relationship between a pencil and a cassette tape; I never felt older. I wasn’t a happy camper, and conceded that I would be playing Cut the Rope for most of the night with an interesting soundtrack.

Then Lights took the stage and, very quickly, almost immediately, I was really impressed. Not only is she an absolutely stunning girl with waaaay more dark sex appeal than the Britneys that came before her, but this lady can sing and play, and do both very well. I immensely enjoyed her acoustic set when she played The Who’s “Behind Blue Eyes” and proved she’s an artist. That evening, she received a Gold record and claimed that her next album would see her “mature” and change her sound… Yawn. Every artist says that. As much as I reluctantly admit to enjoying the show, I still assumed that her next album would be more of the same studio-twiddling.

I was wrong. Way wrong. Lights’ sophomore album, Siberia, is out now. It’s a mostly fitting title because it puts the artist in a new sonic landscape that is vaster, grittier, more terrifying and complex — and beautiful — than that which preceded it (“mostly,” because Siberia also tends to evoke kneejerk prison and desolation imagery; not the case, here, though the emphasis is, as I say, on expansiveness). The new sound is sorta kinda like a way lighter, poppier and commercial take on early Nine Inch Nails, scratch Trent’s scratchy vocals. What Lights has done on this record is actually quite groundbreaking: Nothing sounds like this record. She is fusing the grind and garage electronic experimental sounds with her facility for accessible pop melodies. It’s an amazing juxtaposition of pop songs with distorted rock, and it really works.

How’d Lights end up here? Well, Shad and Brian Borcherdt, from the award-winning experimental electronica/rock/industrial band Holy Fuck, produced the album. This fact blows my mind. By complete coincidence, I knew Holy Fuck extremely well at the time of the Lights concert, having seen them perform at something called The Side Street Project, whereupon I immediately licensed almost their entire album to be the soundtrack for my first feature film,  Most Likely To. This is a testament to how industrious Lights is as an artist (and, frankly, good management) that there are major credible groups like Holy Fuck or Shad that really want to create with her.

I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that this sound will be more omnipresent in a few years; for now, though, no one owns it but her. My name is Matt, and I like Lights. You should, too.

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Image courtesy of MAD Magazine.