Pre-Order: Heaven 2 [CD]

Lillie West has always made her music in response to an itch to always be moving. But, as she recently experienced a burgeoning desire to settle down, she realized that steadiness can beget creativity. That evolution is what fuels much of her new album as Lala Lala, Heaven 2. For many years, West lived in Chicago, where she established Lala Lala as part of that city's indie scene, releasing several records on the Sub Pop imprint Hardly Art. Those albums, The Lamb and I Want the Door to Open, were powerful statements from a curious artist: catchy guitar-pop songs about being stuck in the ups and downs of life, the struggle to stay sober, to leave town, to blow up your life. West left Chicago to search for more and, in the process, wrote her new album, Heaven 2. On her journey, she landed in New Mexico, where she lived off the grid in Taos. "It was very challenging, freezing, infested with poisonous animals. But it's still the most beautiful and magical place I've ever been and I dream about it all the time," West says. She then made her way to Iceland, where she lived for two years on and off, with the off being in London, where she grew up. Eventually, she made her way to Reykjavik and settled in with the music community and released an instrumental album (If I Were A Real Man I Would Be Able To Break The Neck Of A Suffering Bird) before heading to Los Angeles, where she has fallen in love and found herself settled. L.A. has been a good place to live, if for no other reason than, in West's words, "wherever you go, there you are. I wish there was a cooler way to say that." Fortunately, there are: This theme of finding beauty and fulfillment wherever one can permeates Heaven 2. On "Even Mountains Erode," West sings, "There are symbols and signs, you're missing your life." West encourages herself, and us, to slow down. To stop and smell the flowers. West produced the album with Jay Som's Melina Duterte, who provides a strong punchiness as a bed for West's warm, rounded vocals. The relationship between the two of them was telepathic, and the result is a bold and confident album. Duterte and West performed almost all of the album's instruments, with a few crucial guests, like Sen Morimoto on saxophone on the opening track, "Car Anymore," and a bridge written by Porches' Aaron Maine on the title track, "Heaven 2." Catharsis is not only about the pain, but the escape that happens when you free yourself of it. And so there are moments of bold joy on the album, too. "Arrow," which samples the French electro pop band La Femme, moves fast, and it's swiftness and pleasure feel like running towards something, not away. "None of this was supposed to happen," West sings. But it did. "It's such a basic spiritual thing," West says, "Resistance is the root of all suffering, and I thought I could dictate the course of my life." Of course, like everyone else, she could not. Wherever you go, there you are.