While Brooklyn native
Lily Konigsberg began sharing solo material as early as 2014 in between releases with her free-spirited noise rock band,
Palberta, she didn't produce a full-length set of her own until early 2021, when
Wharf Cat issued the compilation
The Best of Lilly Konigsberg Right Now. Following later the same year,
Lily We Need to Talk Now marks her official conceived-as-an-album debut. It finds the experimental rocker in the process of homing in on a shape-shifting, soft-spoken indie pop that has more in common with
Frankie Cosmos and
Amy O than with her trio, without fully committing to lucid pop forms. Examples of the latter can be found, however, in bouncy, hooky entries like "That's the Way I Like It," the sauntering "Roses, Again," and grungier "Proud Home." Interspersed with these are wide-ranging productions such as a calliope-evoking, part-brass instrumental ("Goodbye"), a fuzzy mumble-rocker ("Bad Boy"), a flute-and-bongos-bolstered disco-funk proposition ("Alone"), and an atmospheric keys-and-strings dirge ("Don't Be Lazy with Me"). The latter is drums-free and consists mostly of wave-like octave tones, touches of twinkling piano and horns, and a male singing partner who dreamily interrupts her repeated request. Speaking of guests, they include members of various
Konigsberg projects (
Eyes of Love,
Lily and Horn Horse,
Palberta's
Nina Ryser), among others, and it was produced by
Nate Amos, whose text message inspired the title. The record remains the songwriter's, though, from the quirky "Hark" -- about the challenges of songwriting itself -- right through the racing, punk-injected closer, "True," which looks for the courage to leave a faltering relationship. Given its mercurial disposition and fleeting playing time -- nothing here reaches the three-minute mark --
Lily We Need to Talk Now ultimately feels like a sampler, if one that whets the appetite for more. ~ Marcy Donelson
