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Sep 07, 2021 By Mark Redfern Photography by Miwah Lee

Lala Lala (aka Lillie West) is releasing a new album, I Want the Door to Open, on October 8 via Hardly Art. Now West has shared its third single, “Prove It.” Also shared today was Open the Door: Find Your Keys and Unlock Total Serenity, a quirky new infomercial for the album that features testimonials from CHAI, Sasami Ashworth, Camilo Medina (Divino Niño), IAN SWEET, and more. Sarah Squirm and Will Duncan created the infomercial. Check out the song and infomercial below.

“‘Prove It’ is a song about insatiable people and the idea of ‘good’ vs ‘bad,’” says West in a press release. “It’s about lack of control. Even though this song is accusatory, I relate to the person I’m talking to. I think sometimes when we criticize other people we’re also talking about ourselves.”

The press release also includes a new essay on Lala Lala and I Want the Door to Open by poet, essayist, and critic Hanif Abdurraqib:

“What I crave, what I have always craved, is a collection of songs that make me feel like they are surrounding me in preparation for a season. Not a good season or a bad season, but a season that I can identify as both. This, I’m sure, has to do with me being a product of the Midwest. Where, at least for now, there are still distinct and palpable shifts from month to month, almost as markers of time.

“I think it is the amount of voices on I Want the Door to Open that make me feel comforted, encased, prepared for that moment I know so well where the warmth fades and the darkness comes a little earlier and then, abruptly, a lot earlier. And I don’t mean voices as in different people, I simply mean the multitudinous nature of the choir of sound that one voice can offer. Take, for example, the end of ‘Diver,’ a song that swells and swells until it fades, leaving behind only the residue of voices that echo until the song’s exit, fading right into ‘Photo Photo,’ where the same bursts of choir reappear as the song’s spine.

“I’m saying I like an album that might make me feel less alone, the kind of alone that many of us became acquainted with in newer and sharper ways in the early darkness of the past year, and that some of us might be revisiting in the early darkness of the fall, and the winter, and beyond. I Want the Door to Open is an album that is immense, though not particularly loud. Its volume is in its tenderness, thoughtful arrangements, and elements of surprise, the things that leap out at you when you think you are hearing one song that becomes another song in its final act, a trick this album pulls off alarmingly well, every time. Take, for example, the pulsing heartbeat in ‘Color of the Pool’ that gives way, right at the last minute, to a fluorescent blooming of horns. It’s a magic trick, in a way. Making these songs that are not often long in minutes in seconds feel like mini-suites. Like rooms you don’t want to leave.

“Speaking of a room I don’t want to leave, I firmly believe that I have maybe given up and given in for good. The inside is where I wanna be whenever the fragile ecosystem we’re all tumbling forward in starts to go south again. And if that is going to be the case, then I require albums that are generous enough to make the inside feel like the outside. An album that feels like a gathering, like a warmth creeping in through a window, no matter the weather. An album that feels like a park, bursting with friends and strangers, shouts and laments. I think this is the one for all of my internal and external joys, sadnesses, anxieties, and the small survivals that open up the door to all of the larger survivals to come.”

Previously Lala Lala shared the album’s first single, “DIVER,” via a video. Then came the album’s second single, “Color of the Pool,” shared via a video. I Want the Door to Open features Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie on one song.

Lala Lala also recently remixed Dehd’s “Desire.”

Lala Lala’s last LP was 2018’s The Lamb—which was our Album of the Week. West co-produced the new album with Yoni Wolf of WHY?. Drummer Nnamdi Ogbonnaya plays on “DIVER” and West co-directed the song’s video with Brielle Brilliant. As well as Gibbard and Ogbonnaya, I Want the Door to Open also features contributions from poet Kara Jackson, OHMME, Adam Schatz of Landlady, Sen Morimoto, Christian Lee Hutson, Kaina Castillo, Meg Duffy (of Hand Habbits), Will Miller, Gia Margaret, and Josiah Wolf.

Read our Self-Portrait feature with Lala Lala.

Read our review of Lala Lala’s The Lamb.

Lala Lala Tour Dates: Fri. Oct. 8 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall *
Wed. Oct. 13 - Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room ^
Wed. Oct. 20 - Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg!
Thu. Jan. 27, 2022 - Amsterdam, NE @ Paradiso Noord
Fri. Jan. 28, 2022 - Groningen, NE @ Vera
Sat. Jan. 29, 2022 - Brugge, BE @ Cactus at Villa Bota
Sun. Jan. 30, 2022 - Brussels, BE @ Botanique (Rotonde)
Tue. Feb. 1, 2022 - Köln, DE @ Baumann & SOHN
Wed. Feb. 2, 2022 - Berlin, DE @ Kantine am Berghain
Thu. Feb. 3, 2022 - Hamburg, DE @ Molotow
Sat. Feb. 5, 2022 - Göteborg, SE @ Oceanen
Sun. Feb. 6, 2022 - Oslo, NO @ Internasjonalen
Mon. Feb. 7, 2022 - Stockholm, SE @ Hus 7
Tue. Feb. 8, 2022 - Malmö, SE @ Plan B
Wed. Feb. 9, 2022 - Copenhagen, DK @ Vega at Ideal Bar
Fri. Feb. 11, 2022 - Prague, CZ @ Underdogs’
Sat. Feb. 12, 2022 - Schorndorf, DE @ Club Manufaktur
Sun. Feb. 13, 2022 - Freiburg, DE @ Swamp
Mon. Feb. 14, 2022 - Yverdon-les-Bains, CH @ L’Amalgame
Wed. Feb. 16, 2022 - Zürich, CH @ Rote Fabrik
Thu. Feb. 17, 2022 - Annecy, FR @ Festival Hors-Pistes
Fri. Feb. 18, 2022 - Metz, FR @ Aérogare
Sat. Feb. 19, 2022 - Lille, FR @ l’Aéronef
Sun. Feb. 20, 2022 - Brighton, UK @ Green Door Store
Mon. Feb. 21, 2022 - London, UK @ Moth Club
Wed. Feb. 23, 2022 - Leeds, UK @ Hyde Park Book Club
Thu. Feb. 24, 2022 - Glasgow, UK @ Nice N Sleazy
Fri. Feb. 25, 2022 - Manchester, UK @ YES
Sat. Feb. 26, 2022 - Bristol, UK @ Strange Brew
Mon. Feb. 28, 2022 - Paris, FR @ La Boule Noire
Sat. Mar. 12 - Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
Mon. Mar. 14 - Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
Tue. Mar. 15 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
Wed. Mar. 16 - Boise, ID @ Neurolux
Fri. Mar. 18 - Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile (Second Stage)
Sat. Mar. 19 - Vancouver, BC @ Fox Cabaret
Sun. Mar. 20 - Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
Tue. Mar. 22 - Oakland, CA @ Starline Social Club
Fri. Mar. 25 - San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
Sat. Mar. 26 - Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
Sun. Mar. 27 - Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
Mon. Mar. 28 - Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf
Wed. Mar. 30 - Austin, TX @ The Parish
Thu. Mar. 31 - Fort Worth, TX @ Tulips
Sat. Apr. 2 - Indianapolis, IN @ HI-FI
Sun. Apr. 3 - Milwaukee, WI @ Colectivo Coffee
Wed. Apr. 13 - Davenport, IA @ Raccoon Motel
Thu. Apr. 14 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry
Fri. Apr. 15 - Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
Sat. Apr. 16 - Urbana, IL @ Rose Bowl Tavern
Sun. Apr. 17 - Nashville, TN @ High Watt
Tue. Apr. 19 - Atlanta, GA @ Aisle 5
Wed. Apr. 20 - Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
Fri. Apr. 22 - Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry
Sat. Apr. 23 - Woodstock, NY @ Colony
Sun. Apr. 24 @ Washington, DC @ Black Cat
Wed. Apr. 27 - Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
Thu. Apr. 28 - Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place
Fri. Apr. 29 - Toronto, ON @ The Garrison
Sat. Apr. 30 - Hamtramck, MI @ Outer Limits Lounge

* = w/ Unannounced Special Guest & Kara Jackson
^ = Cryogeyser & Fashion Club
! = Salt Cathedral & Crosslegged

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