21-year-old singer, songwriter and experimental pop star, Lindsey Lomis has announced her highly-anticipated new EP, Handle With Care, out March 29th. Alongside the announcement, she has also released the guitar-packed pop jam, “Long Way Down.” Hinting at Lomis’ alt-rock influences with earworm vocal trills, “Long Way Down” is a perfect sample of Lomis’ witty lyricism and undeniable charisma. Taking off the mask of coolness and embracing the double-edge sword of capital-L love, “Long Way Down” is the perfect intro to Handle With Care: it lends a microscope to Lindsey’s heart.
“Handle With Care is the full perspective of who I am now,” says Lomis regarding the upcoming EP, “I really pinpointed a sound that is so individual but at the same time is made up from so many different genres and inspirations. It really expresses a sound that I’ve been trying to nail for a decade at this point. It’s just so me, 100% through and through.”
Handle With Care is not your typical love story–or is it? Lomis’ newest EP comes on the heels of 2023’s Universe. On Universe, Lomis was fighting the pull of new love, convinced that if she let it in she’d only mess it up; now, on Handle With Care, she’s learning how to trust the other person as well as herself. While her songwriting across both releases is bare and diaristic, it’s also imbued with the lightness that comes from letting her full personality beam. Combined with Lomis’s sophisticated musical instincts, honed on everything from alt-rock to nu-jazz, this is coming-of-age pop at its very best.
On each track, Lindsey samples whirlwind vocal runs, virtuosic guitar grooves and innovative modern pop production. Handle With Care, Lomis’s first self-released record in five years, represents the newest chapter in her life. Having moved to LA to be closer to a like-minded music community, she’s exploring that first taste of real adulthood. “It’s my first big change in life, moving to another city and falling in love with somebody and having all these new experiences. I learn something new about myself every day, and that creates a million more things to write about,” Lomis says. “That’s my current obsession — writing out everything I’m feeling, just because there is so much.”
Produced with the songwriting and production duo KOLE and Ariza, the EP reveals the pop wonderland with the teasingly honest guitar-packed jam “Long Way Down,” ascending to the slick & groovy hypnotizing dreamscapes of “Stalker” and “Handle With Care,” only to land on another intuitive highlight with “Outta Sight (On My Mind).” To honor her most dedicated fans, who followed Lindsey’s journey on the road throughout her first headline tour, the EP intentionally ends with a long time live-favorite ballad, “Sick.”
Lomis is living out her dream and has come a long way from the childhood days when she used to queue in line for shows and drive across the country with her parents for concerts and Grammy camp. In 2020, her signing with the late A&R legend Busbee at Warner Records officially launched her career at the prime age of 17. Since then, she released a series of EPs including 2022’s Daydreaming and most recently, Universe, which achieved considerable critical acclaim from Teen Vogue to American Songwriter. Fans are quickly drawn to her unique take on folk, rock, and jazz, which she elegantly blends into extraordinary modern pop.
From her recent social media music covers, SZA and Tate McRae joined Lomis’ long list of musician fans including the likes of Alessia Cara, Justin Bieber, Bruno Major, The Brook & The Bluff, JoJo and Joshua Bassett. Perhaps the biggest news besides Handle With Care, her first independently released EP, would be the upcoming Jacob Collier collaborations. Jacob Collier recently announced the official tracklist of his upcoming album including a collaboration with Lindsey Lomis, “Cinnamon Crush,” among other features on the album ranging from Brandi Carlile to Tori Kelly to John Mayer & more.
Throughout 2024, she’ll be heading out on tour as part of Jacob Collier’s band, a new frontier that’s bound to fling open doors for her. It’s clear that this is just the start of a huge year for Lindsey Lomis, and there’s nothing fragile about her star power.