REVIEW & Gallery: HAYLA Brings ‘Dark’ to San Francisco
REVIEW
REVIEW
☆ BY ELIJAH CLOWER ☆
WHEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO CATCH HAYLA LIVE PRESENTED ITSELF, there was no version of events where I missed it. Arguably the biggest current female vocalist in the EDM space, Hayla has spent years stacking up hits through features with John Summit, Illenium, Kx5, Kygo, and so many more. Something like 90% of my favorite EDM songs have her voice behind them, which is ironic because I didn't even realize it was the same singer when I first fell in love with tracks like "Escape," "Where You Are," and "Shiver." It wasn't until I connected the dots, that she was the voice behind all of these songs, that I understood she was something special.
Her new album Dark takes a noticeably different approach from her debut, Dusk. Where Dusk was vibrant, danceable, and upbeat, Dark pulls back into something slower and moodier, and the titles alone tell you where she's headed. My personal read on the shift is that it's a step away from what we've become accustomed to whenever Hayla shows up on a feature list, and even a step away from her first album. It feels like a move toward something more personal and more vocal focused, letting the voice that's carried so many other artists' records finally lead its own.
Her setlist struck a strong balance between the hits and the new material, weaving tracks off Dark in with the songs most people came to hear. Even the older hits got a bit of a live rendition treatment, which gave familiar songs a nice twist instead of playing out exactly like the studio versions.
The production leaned into the mood hard. A minimal light setup, a few platforms for Hayla to move between and interact with, and a huge, almost ruffled chiffon backdrop that mirrored the material of her dress all worked together to build the world of Dark around her. A lot of the show was, no pun intended, dark, and from a photography standpoint that's something I'll always push back on even when it's clearly the intended vibe. In all my low-light experience, if the intended vibe is to be in silhouette most of the time, even a 10-15% more white light during the set would easily make both the photography and audience experience a bit more enjoyable. People are not only coming to hear their favorite music, but to see their favorite artists. That's a personal nitpick more than anything though, and it didn't take away from the show itself.
Throughout it all, Hayla's energy never dipped. She danced, she brought real performative presence to the stage, and she did it all while keeping her vocals locked in.
There have been plenty of legendary vocalists throughout music history, and hopefully more people continue to discover Hayla and see that she belongs in that conversation too.
