Name: Like Weather
Brand: Leila

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

LOVE 118CD

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2021-01-15

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Forced Exposure

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

5060165486670

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Leila

Genre US

Electronic

Label US

Modern Love

Moving from a supporting keyboard role with *Björk* and *Galliano*, Leila is the rare female electronica songwriter who doesn't sing, choosing instead to use vocals from friends -- and even her own sister -- for her Like Weather long-player.
Born in Iran, she spent part of her childhood there but was forced to flee to London with her family. She became interested in DJing as well as keyboards, and left college to play with Björk on her first album, 1994's Debut. Leila graduated to sound engineer for the second Björk LP, and began setting up her own home studio.
Signed to Rephlex Records for a solo album, she released the single Don't Fall Asleep in 1997 and the Like Weather album the following year. Love Story and the Sodastream single appeared in 1999. The following year, Leila released her moodier second album, Courtesy of Choice, on XL.

When you make a record that doesn't conform, expect to divide opinion. Like Weather was released in 1998, on Rephlex -- run by Grant Wilson Claridge and Richard D James -- an often great label that had a following largely made up of Aphex-logo wearing fanboys who couldn't quite deal with electronic music made by a girl -- let alone one that used vocals. Everything those lads couldn't fathom about Like Weather is essentially what makes it untouchable; one of the greatest, most effortlessly esoteric pop albums ever made, not in the lineage of IDM or trip-hop, genres it has so often been awkwardly lumped in with, but something else that can't quite be categorized -- even 22 years later. Like Weather echoes the world-building energy of Prince's Sign "O" The Times (1987) -- every track is a self-contained universe all its own, there are no rules or conventions -- it's full of hooks, but also insular as fuck, the production is all over the place and it still sounds like nothing else (although if you're into the Mica Levi-produced Tirzah album (2018), know that this here is the aesthetic, spiritual blueprint). It feels analog, then digital -- it's R&amp;B, but also baroque music box, drone pop, experimental, electronic, junglist -- attempting to define it is like trying to cup mercury in the palm of your hands; it'll just find something else to slide into. Newly remastered by Rashad Becker; cut by Lupo.

LP version includes a limited edition 7", like the initial run. 

Like Weather

Music US

Buy Leila - Like Weather (Vinyl, CD) now from Rough Trade - independent purveyors of great music, since 1976.