Bat for Lashes is going it alone.

I’ve always admired her work. She’s done 5 albums and all over those records are songs that are brave, experimental and uncompromising.

Yet she has seemed to have had a bit of a rough ride as far as labels are concerned and the reason is clear.

Labels want financial success above anything else, so much so that they would rather thrust mediocrity that’s guaranteed to appeal to some superficial degree than anything that takes a risk and dances on the edge.

This was not the case before the 2000s, labels sought out talent and gave them time to nurture their sound and craft and have a few misfires along the way. Now if you want to do this kind of thing, it’s most likely that you are on your own.

Labels follow the data, then they have a committee of multiple producers and songwriters to manufacture the hits.

Popular does not mean better.

And when an artist follows integrity and gets things right, it hits on a level deeper and more resonant than anything a team of writers seeking out the average marketplace.

The good news is you don’t need permission any more to make your art, in the way you want to make it. If you are inspired to follow your own tuning fork, do it and don’t let any groupthink convince you to do otherwise.