Whitney - Light Upon The Lake (Cotton Candy Vinyl)

Light Upon The Lake, the acclaimed debut album by Whitney, receives a new Cotton Candy coloured vinyl pressing to mark its tenth anniversary. Originally released in 2016 through Secretly Canadian, the record introduced the Chicago group’s distinctive combination of bruised songwriting, relaxed grooves, orchestral detail and sunlit production. This anniversary edition brings a previously unavailable UK colour variant to the album’s growing audience.

Whitney formed around guitarist Max Kakacek and singing drummer Julien Ehrlich after the end of Smith Westerns. Ehrlich had also played with Unknown Mortal Orchestra, but the new project allowed both musicians to develop a sound that felt more intimate and emotionally direct. Written during a period of personal upheaval, the songs carry loneliness and uncertainty without becoming heavy-handed. Instead, the band places those feelings inside arrangements that feel warm, open and gently lived-in.

Opening track “No Woman” remains one of Whitney’s defining recordings, pairing Ehrlich’s delicate falsetto with brass, acoustic guitar and an easy rhythmic pulse. “Golden Days,” “Dave’s Song” and “No Matter Where We Go” continue the album’s balance of melancholy and uplift, while the title track and “On My Own” reveal the quiet precision beneath the band’s apparently casual style. Instrumental passages such as “Red Moon” add space and movement before “Polly” and “Follow” bring the record to a restrained close.

The group’s influences include the wounded country-folk of Townes Van Zandt, the loose soulfulness of Bobby Charles, the roots-minded experimentation of The Band and the slacker rhythm of early Pavement. Yet Light Upon The Lake never feels like a collection of references. Its identity comes from the chemistry between the musicians and the clarity of songs built to reward repeat listening.

Pressed on Cotton Candy coloured vinyl, this tenth-anniversary edition offers a distinctive alternative to earlier pressings while retaining the original ten-track sequence. It is an essential modern indie album for listeners drawn to soft rock, folk soul, chamber pop and songwriting that turns private sadness into something generous and communal.