With its rich and emotive textures perfectly heightening her dazzling vocals once again, ‘Something Now’ adds another refined layer to her already immersive efforts of late. Building upon the shimmering presence of her recent releases to develop a warmer and more heartfelt direction, Bess Atwell continues to shine as one of the more tantalising talents on the rise right now.

Adding about ‘Something Now’, she said, “This track is a celebration of feeling, written in a moment of empowerment when I was tapering off antidepressants. I’m not anti-medication, but I realised I’d become frightened of my feelings and it signalled a change in me that I was prepared to feel a broader spectrum of emotion.

“Opening myself up to emotional discomfort meant confronting beliefs I had developed to protect myself from it. At some point, probably at a very young age, I had decided that any suffering myself and my family had been through could be offset by becoming successful in my career. I could settle the score by turning pain into something beautiful and lucrative. Something Now challenges the childlike idealism of this belief, and explores how it was just another form of avoidance and unwillingness to feel. It champions the idea that pain doesn’t take away from joy, if anything it adds to it.”

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Exploring more of that rich and dreamlike aesthetic she has become synonymous with in recent years, ‘Fan Favourite’ makes for a beautifully sweet and emotive listen throughout. With its deeply moving narrative exploring finality within life and love, she serenades us with this captivating ode to shared experiences and our strong connections to them.

Speaking about ‘Fan Favourite’, she said, “I wrote ‘Fan Favourite’ after watching some behind the scenes footage from a popular TV show. Not even a die-hard fan of the show myself – I can’t remember what it was now – I found myself emotional watching the cast’s wrap party. I felt jealous of the sense of community and opportunity to reflect on shared experiences and history. I pictured my own family’s “wrap party” and what that would look like. The sadness, humour, disappointment and joy that would come with acknowledging the huge shared experience we’ve had in this life. The song also touches on the passing of time, a sense of dissociation, and feeling as though you’ve missed out on life despite still living it.

“’Fan Favourite’ is an attempt at a self-wake-up call so I wanted the production to sparkle, breathe and feel alive, the instrumentation a reminder that life is indeed still there to be lived.”

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Produced by The National’s Aaron Dressner (Taylor Swift, Ben Howard, Sharon Van Etten, Ed Sheeran), Light Sleeper looks to continue the warm and effervescent aesthetic Bess Atwell has been cultivating for herself in recent years. Featuring the previously shared tracks ‘Sylvester’ and ‘The Weeping’, her newest offering sees her grow not only as a songwriter, but as one of this country’s more revered artists.

The new record will also include the new single ‘Release Myself’, which was recently premiered on Steve Lamacq’s BBC 6Music show. Accompanied by a beguiling new video, shot with Dylan Friese Greene, she shines across this vibrant new delight, highlighting some of the more euphoric moments from her next collection.

Adding about ‘Release Myself’, she said, “There are always a couple of songs on a record that just sort of fall out of you and this was one of them. This was the first time I’ve managed to write about my panic disorder without slipping too far into sorry-for-myself or cheesy, faux-empowering territory. It’s a song that says “hey I’m struggling but I’m not a victim”.

And on the new visuals, “I knew I wanted to lean into a slightly 90s wall-of-guitars sound and make it as energetic as possible, without losing the song. My friend (artist Derek Inver) and I were discussing this era of music and how brilliantly expressive and unafraid a lot of the indie pop was. I wanted to perform like I meant it, because I do. I hope that’s apparent on this track.”

Light Sleeper:

1. Everyone Who’s Not In Love With You Is Wrong
2. Release Myself
3. Sylvester
4. Fan Favourite
5. The Weeping
6. Something Now
7. Spinning Sun
8. I Am Awake
9. Crowds
10. Light Sleeper

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The origins of ‘The Weeping’ stem from Bess’ recollection of a potent vignette from her childhood, growing up alongside her sister who has severe autism.“I saw us as two halves, but two halves of a whole” she sings atop deliberately unfussy instrumentation and production. Although Atwell’s knack for capturing the nuance and minutiae of the human experience in her songwriting is well documented, in both ‘The Weeping’ and ‘Sylvester’ this takes on a new resonance. Shortly following both tracks recording at Dessner’s studio in upstate New York, she received her diagnosis for Autism Spectrum Disorder, bringing with it a wave of validation for her both personally and artistically.

“I knew ‘The Weeping’ was in me, I just wasn’t sure when it would decide to come out. I only knew I was writing it when I got to the second verse and realised I finally had a vantage point. My younger sister is autistic, the kind of non-verbal autism that requires 24/7 care, and this track is mostly about what it was like to grow up with her. ‘The Weeping’ explores the parallels between me and my sister which is more interesting when you consider that I wrote it before I found out that I’m also autistic, this year – albeit, in a far less debilitating, disabling way.” Atwell explains,“When we were children, my sister had a toy fish tank that would light up and play music when you hit the button. I used to fall asleep next door to the sound of her replaying the toy’s melancholic piano lullaby. At just seven years old I had some understanding of the loneliness and confusion that came with being unable to communicate effectively, and stuck in your own strange world. I felt, viscerally, the attempts to self soothe with every hit of the button as the song began to play again.”

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