Photo courtesy of Thomas Ford Flynn

Lily Lane has held the crown of dark-pop princess for quite some time, so it is only fitting that she trades that crown in for a lighter, happier one.

What she is calling “lovergirl summer” started with her single, “I Do”. The romantic, pop-soul track tells the story of the day after her fiancé proposed. Narrating her own love story began as an exercise to write a song out of her comfort zone, and led her to a new side of her creativity.

Her latest single, “Crisis”, also came from that exercise. She asked herself the question, “What does love sound like to me?” and almost immediately brought both tracks to life.

She said that these songs are the polar opposites of each other. “Crisis” is about the beginning of a love story while “I Do” is about love after a long relationship.

“[‘Crisis’] sounds to me like love does at the very beginning: a rollercoaster of will-we-won't-we, almost obsession, so many possibilities, upbeat, thoughts racing,” Lane said. “It's how I felt the first month of my relationship. The butterflies phase. In this era I am inspired by love.”

Her “lovergirl summer” is a departure, but not a permanent one. She very much wants to stay in the moment of the months leading up to her wedding, and not feel the negative aspects that can come from writing about trauma or mental illness.

“‘Lovergirl summer’ is for anyone who has a crush or is in love or just wants to put aside their sad/realist/pessimistic instincts and just live in the fairy tale, the la la land of love,” she said. “It can feel a little strange and a little counterintuitive when your whole life you have been trying not to get hurt and to put up walls and protections, but there is something so light and freeing about just throwing your inhibitions to the wind and not worrying about ‘what if’ - just living in love (although please please please make being embarrassed over a partner chic so if it happens - nbd!). With all the darkness going on in the world I didn't feel like I needed to add to that. I have a discography of dark pop songs that will help you explore your deepest, darkest emotions or lean into your villain era or sad girl phase. I felt like I wanted to add a little happiness, a little naivete and hopeless romantic energy that I was feeling for the first time when I got engaged.”

Embarrassment is something that Lane has learned to accept this year. She is at that point in her musical journey where she can look back at her younger self and wish that she wasn’t so shameful of the music she was releasing then. She admits to some of her earlier recordings being removed from streaming platforms, and how she wishes she had been proud of them then. She is certainly proud of them now, and recognizes that as long as she is authentic, cringe and shame mean nothing.

“The only thing I can be is myself as authentically as possible, and who that is changes, so if I end up feeling differently later I won't regret it,” she said. “I will be glad I expressed myself in such a special moment and will continue to express my updated feelings.”

The freedom of releasing music on her own terms has certainly helped that confidence, as she can share them while the emotion or story is still fresh. That is part of the reason why “lovergirl summer” will be celebrated leading up to Lane’s wedding in the fall, with another single and a project involving the lead singles.

“I'm trying to make music that sounds like love,” she said. “There are many different types and kinds of love; [‘Crisis’] is the feeling of new love for me. ‘I Do’ was the feeling of forever love. One is scary, one is the least scary thing in the world.”

It is not the last of the dark-pop princess that listeners have loved since day one, but it is refreshing to hear Lane try something new. Being whisked away by this love story is a vastly different yet still vulnerable piece of her that makes these songs easy to embrace.