We have been enjoying the recent rush of singles from our unique fave iyla over the past six months. She’s taking us from the emotional (“Blue Eyes”) to the club-ready (“Strut”) and even gave us hot and bothered (“Overboard”). While it’s obvious that the singer has some kind of project on the horizon, she is currently content with plying us with samplings of what’s to come, as she is doing with her latest release “Wild.”
“Wild” taps into iyla’s more defiant side — which she’s shown on cuts like “FOH” — though this time the singer offers more vulnerability to balance things out. The hip-hop-tinged song was produced by her frequent collaborator Kadis and allows iyla to hash out a relationship over hard-hitting drums and moody guitar, piano and vocal samples. With a haunting backing vocal arrangement thrown into the mix, the track feels almost epic in scope.
Lyrically, iyla tells the story of a relationship that started out all good when she was young, but now stifles her growth. While the verses give us the details, the chorus fleshes out her need to be free.
“Thought you could break me / Thought you could cage me / Baby, that’s not how I’m wired,” she sings. “Thought you could train me / Thought you could tame me / I’d rather go back to the wild.”
We would never want to tame the wildly creative child that is iyla, but we would love to know when she plans to drop that new project. Based on her previous rollouts, though, we’ll be waiting a while as she’s an artist that loves a good buildup. While we exercise our patience, get into her latest by giving “Wild” a play below.
