Ears Wide Open: Leila Sunier

Haley Bosselman on August 18th, 2020

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During the high heat of a pandemic-afflicted August, singer-songwriter Leila Sunier released “Sober/Without,” a shimmering, hazy look back at summertime nightlife. A collaboration with producer Alex Newport, Sunier’s newest song is the lead single for her upcoming EP, “Where Everything is Perfect.”

The Los Angeles-based artist is on track to put out her second project of the year. Her debut EP, “If Only to Bleed Out the White Noise,” came out in February. With “Sober/Without,” Sunier signals she is staying true to her Joni Mitchell and Angel Olsen influences, but may be trading in surrealist sounds for something a little more upbeat. “Sober/Without” begins with the same sort of delicacy found in much of “If Only to Bleed …” but kicks up her delivery to match the vibrancy of First Aid Kit and Maggie Rogers.

“‘Sober/Without’ has always acted as the project’s preface,” Sunier says. “Immediately, I lay it all on the line with that first lyric, saying ‘I’ll figure it out when I’m sober,’ while admitting, ‘I’m hardly sober.’ That right there is the core of it all. From there, it could go either way.”

The title of the EP, “Where Everything is Perfect,” “represents an acknowledgement that everything is not perfect,” the songwriter says. “Everything is a mess.” The lead single only extends this mission by romanticizing the warm fuzziness onset by a night out. “Falling for his eyes, oh they’re green and kind, but they’re never sober, at the bar,” she sings. Sunier knows drinking brings a particular numbness that can give way to longing and loneliness. Only at the very end does she fully admit, “I don’t ever want to go home without him.”

“I wrote this song in the summer of last year, and the entire story is centered around ‘the bar.’ Today, the setting isn’t really a viable one,” she says. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that culture around it doesn’t still permeate. It makes you wonder, it makes you hope that people you know are doing all right.”

The six-track EP is set to drop on Oct. 9.

||| Stream: “Sober/Without”