Leyla Ebrahimi's Debut EP Paints a Hauntingly Gothic Tale of Heartache, Addiction, and Devotion
The first week of March, I traveled to New Haven, Connecticut, with my friends to attend Del Water Gap’s last show of his North American tour. As this was a previously rescheduled date, this tour stop featured a brand new and one-night-only opening act, an artist named Leyla Ebrahimi. My friends and I are big believers in creating an encouraging crowd, and we definitely wanted to represent Del Water Gap’s fan culture well, so we were already committed to showing enthusiasm.
Leyla’s performance made enthusiasm effortless. After the concert, I walked away from the barricade with her songs and voice rattling around in my head. On our walk back to the hotel, I was already adding her songs to my Spotify library. I even messaged her on Instagram that she was “genuinely the best opening set I think I’ve ever seen, instant new fan.” I could not stop thinking about the show! Her stage presence was magnetic, and her genuine joy was positively endearing to watch. She kept looking at her band members with a huge smile on her face, as if to say, “Can you believe this is happening?” And like I said, it was not feigned enthusiasm at all; she easily brought this excitement out of the audience.
Being an eager Paramore fan, I have often read about how people knew Paramore was something special from their first Warped Tour in 2005, witnessing Hayley running around on their tiny, portable stage like a force to be reckoned with. I always wondered what it would have been like to be in one of those crowds, witnessing 16-year-old Hayley Williams eat up the stage, just knowing a flash of lightning was being formed right in front of their eyes. As I watched Leyla perform, I kept thinking, this must be what those crowds for early Paramore shows felt like. The comparison fell easily in my head, and not because they are both women with powerhouse vocals singing emotional songs in the alt-rock genre. This comparison blossomed because they both have utterly ethereal stage presences, creating a whole different existence for their crowds.
I was giddy, thinking, I am witnessing a superstar in the making, watching her bloom brightly in the very early stages of her career, and I am so grateful to be here for her first EP release, Planet You Forgot Me.
Her debut EP, its title taken from the first song on the tracklist, “planet you forgot me,” (which she first released last January), holds six songs, and according to Leyla’s Instagram captions, this EP is “a sonic archive of a love story” that she “lived every second of,” and dedicates it to “anyone who has loved fiercely, and lost brutally.”
Even with a compact running time of 21 minutes and 10 seconds, it is anything but breezy as it fights through stormy waters of heartache, regret, and confusion. These songs demand attention and easily hold it, shaking listeners out of a trance. Her raw, almost strangled, vocals bombard the audience with grunge-heavy choruses and pelt them with visceral verses that get repeated again and again, creating a vortex of desperation and anxiety bursting from her thoughts, spilling onto the listener.
Some of her repeated lines include:
Maybe in another life I’d get to have you," (from “planet you forgot me”)
"Do we ever see it through?” (from “i’m a little flower”)
"Oh my God, I really lost my mind this time,” (from “This graveyard is for lovers”)
While these verses might read straightforward on the screen, it is the repetition and palpable emotion in her voice that adds immense depth to the stirring center of these songs. This reiteration compounds on stage while she is singing, the lyrics still reverberating in my eardrums three months after seeing her perform.
Her lyrics weave a complicated tale, presenting common themes and motifs through all six songs, marking this EP as the first chapter in a cinematic world she is creating, navigating topics like substance abuse/medication, divine knowledge, and cosmic elements, alongside grim, dark imagery.
Some of her superb storytelling through weaving motifs include:
Substance abuse/medication
Now I need a lot of medication to stop self-medicating / And when I want to drink I think about the feeling” (from “planet you forgot me”)
“I got sober to get over the exact way that I'm healing” (from “i’m a little flower”)
“And the Seroquel was working till I started losing patience / I've been calling up my doctor screaming, ‘fuck this medication’” (from “i’m a little flower”)
“And there’s no pill to bring back love” (from “This graveyard is for lovers”)
“I drink my way into your arms” (from “This graveyard is for lovers”)
Divine knowledge
I've been searching for a sign that leads me to you” (from “planet you forgot me”)
“Pulling Tarot in the subway / And the cards will say it all goes back to you” (from “i’m a little flower”)
“I paid the psychic, it cost so much money” (from “I Know You’re The Moon”)
Cosmic elements
I’m outside your house making wishes on the moon” (from “i’m a little flower”)
“Sitting on the moon, having visions of my lover” (from “i’m a little flower”)
“I know you’re the moon, but what am I to you?” (from “I Know You’re The Moon”)
“It’s not casual, it’s the stars” (from “This graveyard is for lovers”)
One of my favorite lines from "I Know You're The Moon" is, “Why don’t you change in my arms?” In my mind, she is referencing the moon's cycles and how it changes throughout a month; lamenting why the song's subject (whom Leyla calls "the moon") is not changing from their old ways.
Grim, dark imagery
Now I’m an 18th century graveyard” (from “planet you forgot me”)
“Leyla means the dark, nighttime in the park” (from “I Know You’re The Moon”)
“This graveyard is for lovers” (from “This graveyard is for lovers”)
One of my other favorite lines is when Leyla cleverly uses her name (which stems from the roughly translated Arabic word for "night" or "dark") to bemoan the atmosphere and energy she has cultivated around herself, using celestial objects to symbolize her devotion to the subject of her songs (after all, if the subject is "the moon" and Leyla is "the dark," how is she supposed to see at night without the light of the moon?)
Throughout these motifs, Leyla paints a gothic story that deals with numerous topics, spanning fate to forgiveness to mental health and beyond. These concepts travel through her songs, digging for deeper meanings and forging stronger connections that will make for a more illustrious discography as she continues to strengthen these threads throughout her songs, creating an entire world for her listeners to wander.
With this debut EP, Leyla has cemented a place for herself in the future of music. Her unique, individualized sound, personal lyrics, and passionate, gripping performances will keep her on an upward trajectory, and I am happy to be an enthusiastic audience member.
Listen to Planet You Forgot Me here:
WRITTEN BY
Mary
I was a very shy kid, so I found my solace in writing, where I could say whatever I wanted to a blank page. This hobby turned into a passion, which turned into a lifeline, which is (hopefully) turning into a career! I am mostly inspired by poetic lyrics in songs I repeatedly listen to, descriptive language in novels I cannot put down, and scenes from movies or television that just won't stop playing in my head.
