A fearless debut, iyla’s ‘Weeping Angel’ blends spiritual, sensual and cinematic threads

A fearless debut from iyla, ‘Weeping Angel’ spans 13 tracks, ‘Pledge’ leads, with ‘Corset’ and vivid tributes shaping the arc.

Photo Credit: Bonnie Nichoalds

Framed as both confession and catharsis, ‘Weeping Angel’ arrives as iyla’s debut album and signals a fully formed voice. The 13 track set, available across platforms, threads fan favorite releases, ‘Wild’, ‘Strut’, ‘Overboard’, and ‘Corset’, while unveiling the cutting new focus, ‘Pledge’.

“‘Pledge’ is a sexy and confident demand for a man to step his game up,” says iyla of the new track. “Drop to your knees or fly away forever.”

The title reflects an era defined by loss and rebirth. In the wake of her mother’s passing, iyla shaped an album that is spiritual, sensual, and cinematic, an expansion of her range and resolve. She calls it a reflection of feelings she could not voice in the moment, a project excavated from tears and raised again to sunlight, a ride she promises listeners will not want to leave.

“Weeping Angel is my debut album, named after the monster that is love,” iyla reveals. “We created this album in the most challenging and transformative couple years of my life. It’s a reflection of everything I felt but couldn’t say out loud… it’s freedom, sensuality, heartache, pain, moments of clarity, grief and the spectrum that is to love and be loved in return. These songs came from laughs and from screams. This album was drowned in tears and brought back to the surface again to see the sun. Creating this project was a way of surviving, of making art from the wreckage, and discovering new parts of myself through it all. Weeping Angel is spiritual, provocative, and a ride you will never want to get off of.”

The tracklist sketches a panorama. ‘Ave Maria’ aligns devotion and desire, voiced plainly in her remark, “If you’re spiritual, there’s often an expectation you can’t embrace your own sexuality,” she notes. ‘Cotton Candy Clouds’ is a pink tinted dream for her mother, “Her favorite color was pink, and my favorite color was never pink. Since her death, my favorite color is now pink,” iyla shares. ‘Twin Flame’ measures inner duality, ‘Join Hands’ brings a church like lift, and ‘Skirt Hurt (Redemption)’ balances vulnerability with bravado, “It’s the first track I wrote after my mom’s passing,” she says. “I always need to have this stance of bad-bitch energy—but conveyed in a poetic and timeless way.”

In the lead up, ‘Corset’ cleared the runway, a cinematic slow burn from longtime collaborator Kadis, scored with metaphor and emotional tension. The visual, directed by Justin Moser with iyla as creative director, transposes the ‘Weeping Angel’ artwork into haunting, surreal life.