''Lights'' is the self-titled debut EP by Canadian recording artist

Lights Light is an electromagnetic radiation, part of which stimulates the sense of vision. Light or Lights may also refer to: Illumination * Light bulb * Traffic light Arts and entertainment Music * Lights (musician) (born 1987), Canadian singer-son ...

, released on iTunes on July 24, 2008. It was released as a 12-inch vinyl on September 16, 2008.

Background

Cover art

The cover art is a picture of Lights that she took in her apartment in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

heavily edited in a "cheap program" she owned for her computer at the time. She color-blocked and re-outlined the image rendering it to what it is. The cover led some to believe that the vinyl was a calendar, which prompted some mistakable purchases.

Songs in media

Beginning in February 2008, her song "

February Air "February Air" is the second single by Canadian singer-songwriter Lights from her debut self-titled EP. It was released on December 9, 2008 in Canada. The song reached #90 on the Canadian Hot 100 Billboard magazine chart. An acoustic version of t ...

" was featured in a series of

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television ads. The music video for the song premiered in December. Another track, "

Drive My Soul "Drive My Soul" is the debut single by Canadian singer-songwriter Lights from her debut self-titled EP. It was released as the EP's lead single on March 11, 2008, in Canada and July 24, 2008, in the United States. The song reached number 18 on t ...

", appeared during a 2008 episode of

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's '' The Hills''.

Release and reception

The EP was released on July 24, 2008. It was made available in Canada through

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HMV Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom. The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...

, and iTunes, and in the United States on iTunes. Later in the year, coinciding with Lights' touring, the EP was made available on CD in the US on September 16, 2008. Three songs from ''Lights'' were released as singles: "Drive My Soul", "February Air", and "

Ice Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaq ...

". These songs, along with " The Last Thing on Your Mind", were later reworked and included on Lights' debut album, '' The Listening'' (2009). ''Lights'' peaked at number 27 on the ''

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Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...

albums chart. Matthew Chisling of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

remarked that the EP "found a large amount of commercial success" and "critical praise"—including Lights' 2009 Juno Award for New Artist of the Year —which led Warner Bros. to allow Lights to release ''The Listening'' almost a year later.

Track listing

References

{{Lights 2008 debut EPs Lights (musician) albums Synth-pop EPs