Emerging alt-pop auteur Erin LeCount has returned with a beguiling new single, Machine Ghost, accompanied by a cinematic music video directed by Sam Taylor-Edwards. The 22-year-old singer, songwriter and producer, who writes and produces all her own material, solidifies her reputation as a singular voice in contemporary art-pop, with a track that sits gracefully between baroque-pop grandeur and a darker, gothic pop sensibility.
On Machine Ghost, LeCount’s production is expansive yet intimate, all crafted by her own hand, which gives the song a rare unity of vision. Lush orchestral flourishes collide with modern synth textures, while her diaristic lyrics and haunted vocal delivery explore dissociation and the search for sensation in an increasingly numbed world. “Machine Ghost is a song about dissociation, the feeling of separation from your body in everyday life, at parties and the most intimate moments,” LeCount explains, “It’s about going to extreme lengths to try and evoke some feeling again, no matter what it takes and what risk it involves, seeking cheap thrills and painful pleasure. An observation of my own body, relationships and my take on what it means to be both the ghost, and the machine.”
The new video picks up where her last clip for 808 Hymn left off, placing LeCount in a derelict, cinematic room that perfectly visualises the single’s themes. The imagery is at once fragile and confrontational, and reinforces LeCount’s flair for cohesive storytelling across audio and visual mediums. The video, directed by Taylor-Edwards, is a bold statement from an artist who treats every release as a full-spectrum work of art.
LeCount’s sound draws clear lines to her stated influences – Fiona Apple’s visceral lyricism, Kate Bush’s theatricality, Imogen Heap’s production inventiveness, Lorde’s minimalist drama, Charli XCX’s pop intelligence and Sampha’s emotional gravity – yet she is no simple pastiche. Instead she channels those touchstones into a modern, personal language that balances vulnerability with compositional ambition. At the foreground of her music sit intimate, confessional lyrics and intoxicating synth lines that flip between tenderness and menace, marking her out as a careful sonic architect rather than a studio passenger.
Already receiving attention from tastemakers, LeCount has been dubbed “Tomorrow’s Coolest Alt-Pop Girl Knows How to Code” by i-D, a line that nods to her DIY ethos. Self-taught and hands-on in every aspect of her music, she is part of a growing wave of artists reclaiming the producer’s throne, combining bedroom ingenuity with a clear cinematic ambition.
Her aesthetic isn’t limited to sound. LeCount recently attended Paris Fashion Week, taking in shows from houses such as Ann Demeulemeester and Mugler, signalling an interest in fashion worlds that often intersect with contemporary pop’s visual codes. That crossover between runway glamour and melancholic pop theatre gives her work an added cultural texture, and points to an artist thinking carefully about image as well as sound.
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