I basically haven't shut up about Afternoon Bike Ride, Lia Kuri's trio with David Tanton and Éloi Le Blanc-Ringuette, since Exclaim!'s former Features Editor forwarded me their self-titled debut album in 2021. In three short years, they've grown in leaps and bounds as a group from those dreamy little lo-fi ditties — and their frontwoman has now struck on her own as a forward-thinking electropop artist.
For Kuri, music has always been about more than the sum of its parts. Afternoon Bike Ride's 2022 album, Glossover, was written when she became the primary carer for her father amid his Alzheimer's diagnosis, and Motherland is a deeper excavation of the artist's caring instincts. As an only child looking after sick parents (her mother was also diagnosed with cancer), Kuri found an understanding of the emotional toll of the climate crisis on Planet Earth itself, feeling herself dutifully ravaged by the needs of others coming ahead of her own.
Aside from the stripped-down ballad "Weak" and gently swaying "Energy," Kuri becomes separates herself from her work with Afternoon Bike Ride, fully embodying the role of writing from the Earth's perspective with alienating vocal effects and drum-and-bass hooks. The singer-songwriter's lilting, opalescent voice remains recognizable, but, by using Mother Nature as a conduit and an ally, she's able to access a thrilling newfound sense of urgency.