There are two versions of Los Angeles in the cultural imagination. One is the city of sunsets and success and people becoming what they always knew they could be. The other is the one you find at two in the morning when the marquees have gone dark and the connections that felt electric a few hours ago have already started to dissolve. Valley Lights has always been interested in the second version. His 2023 debut Two Lane Highway built a sonic world from slick drum machines, soaring guitar lines, and basslines with a pulse, and it established him as someone with a specific and compelling point of view. Devil May Care, his sophomore record on Outland Recordings, deepens that world across ten tracks.
The influences are clear and worn honestly. The analogue warmth of the 1980s sits underneath everything, alongside the seductive pulse of modern R&B and funk, and the result is music that feels cinematic without being self-consciously so. Valley Lights is not scoring a film. He is documenting a city, and specifically the emotional residue that city leaves behind when the night ends.
The Album
Giving Up On You opens with bright synth pips and soulful vocals carrying infectious melodic hooks above steady drums, pulsing synths, and intricate lead guitar. It is a dazzling synth pop entry point that is both memorable and emotionally grounded from the first listen.
Alexandra follows with shimmering synth textures and a rumbling bass bringing in commanding vocals and driving instrumentation. It has a synthwave undertow that gives it a slightly darker energy than the opener, and it works as an early indicator that this album is not going to stay in one place for long.
Fading Light starts with murky instrumental elements and distant vocal samples before coming into focus with impassioned vocals and enveloping synth layers. It surges with danceable energy while maintaining the moodiness that sits at the record’s core.
Something Worth Living For leans into rock-inflected pop, with fuzzy bass synth lines and punchy drums underpinning a captivating vocal performance. It is one of the more uplifting moments on the album, which in context makes it feel earned rather than easy.
Indiscretions is a highlight and one of the more immediately enjoyable tracks on the record. Funk-driven disco pop with colourful instrumentation, grooving rhythms, and instantly catchy melodic leads over lyrics about infatuation. It is the track that sits most comfortably at the intersection of where the 1980s and the present moment overlap.
New Mexico glides with woozy synth textures and bubbling lead notes, casting a dreamy soundscape with laid back drums and emotive vocals. It is a moving and genuinely transportive moment in the middle of the record, a brief exhale before the album picks back up.
In The Silence builds with staccato synth layers and twanging guitar lines before uptempo drums push forward momentum. It swells with thrilling energy and some of the most intoxicating vocal work on the album.
Life on the Edge closes the record with hazy instrumental elements drifting into view before pounding drums and crunching guitars collide in a burst of rock energy. Saxophone flourishes and enthralling guitar leads carry it through to a genuinely epic finish. As album closers go it earns its runtime completely and sends you out on the right note.
The Verdict
Devil May Care is Valley Lights fully inhabiting the world he started building on Two Lane Highway. The emotional themes are consistent, the production is richer, and the songwriting covers more ground without losing the specific atmospheric identity that makes this project distinctive. If you have any affection for nocturnal synth pop, cinematic indie rock, or the particular feeling of a city that looks better from a distance, this record is for you.
Devil May Care is out now on Outland Recordings. Follow Valley Lights for new releases.
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