For those who have witnessed the incredible rise of Lola Audreys to the status of South African pop royalty, listening to ‘Summer On A Sunday’, our August 7th obsession which will not cease its rotation any time soon, is anything but the typical experience of receiving a new single from an artist; it is like witnessing the work of a painter signing off their masterpiece. Believe us, she is on her own stratosphere at this point. This uplifting little spark of golden-hour magic is not just another soundtrack for the summer; it is a real time machine to a moment in life where freedom was as salty as air and tomorrow promised to be huge. Lola has an incredible knack for pinpointing the very essence of becoming a grown-up without losing a bit of magic. Let’s get to it!
There is not one bit of a doubt in her mind—she wastes no time in writing anything unnecessary into an introduction and gets straight down to business, throwing you immediately into the intimacy of her performance with the backdrop of a liquid-gold shimmer of synthesizer playing in the background. It’s not only that the music is played over and over again; it keeps getting higher in volume and pitch each time, creating a tense feeling with every beat like the tightening of the skin around a drum. And when this beat cracks its chest open? Absolute catharsis.
Warming the way bleached linen and sunburnt skin warm—effortless, overwhelmingly soft, and the quiet tightening of your chest with the ache of the very first summer you’ve really owned your time. In Lola’s hands, memory is not simply an archive that yellows in a box but something that crackles with life—high tide afternoons, laughter ricocheting off the scorching ground, eyes widening over maps, heart pounding first loves, risky games of flirtation, and the electricity of waking up in your skin, which continues evolving. No matter whether they come directly from her personal archives of school vacations, family station wagon adventures, or those few moments of blissful freedom before reality slaps you across the face with your bill for living, she captures the wild, untamed optimism of having nothing marked on your calendar in red. And who is the main character in all of it? Free, glowing, soaking all of his time dry with the ruthless, hungry magic of one who knows that magic comes with a curfew. Only Lola could make coming of age into an offer of invitation to which we will always be lucky to respond.
With the darkly sweet magic of Alexandre Anthony, Ted Tarling, and Lola taking things to new heights alongside the masterful work of French Original on the console with his bass mastery, the song manages the impossible feat of sounding like a classic that you’ve always known since the age of sixteen while carrying the sleek and chrome polish of next year. Deep, heavy bass lines provide the foundation for a vibrant rhythm that defies all sense of gravity, sending soaring melodies up into the air like the sunlight shattering cleanly through fog on the sea. It’s sunburst-bright hook craft designed with only one necessary instruction in mind: turn the dial to levels beyond comfort, open all windows wide, and take back the landscape of your road trips, the salt-caked shores, the endless horizon, and those few precious days where time quits charging and gives back the keys.
From hook to line, to full spiritual transcendence: ‘Summer On A Sunday’ not only captures the spirit, but gives the keys and challenges you to step on the gas in whatever season you may be living, showing that true pop sorcery transcends time. It’s not often that unearthing an album becomes not just an assignment, but an excavation of something truly precious. It’s not often that writing an album review makes me feel like there’s some unknown spiritual currency I’ve been missing out on this whole time. Witnessing someone who represents the future of a generation zero in on her own path by fully owning what she does, and making pure rays of sunshine into gravity, is exactly what this art form thrives on. Let’s call ourselves permanently planted in the front row, pen ready and hearts pounding for the next crown.
Stream “Summer On A Sunday” on Spotify
Follow Lola Audreys here and her socials: Instagram, YouTube
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