Newcastle-based singer-songwriter Ruth Lyon has released “Perfect,” a cutting, indie-pop commentary on the noxious chase for perfection in present-day society. Off her hotly anticipated debut album “Poems & Non-Fiction” due by June 13, 2025, “Perfect” is a bracing dose of Lyon’s biting wit and keen songwriting, offering a caustic take on the modern cult of image and curated lives.
Driven by its infectious beat and shiny melody, “Perfect” is the most pop-leaning moment on Lyon’s upcoming album. The album was produced by John Parish, and the song finds a perfect combination of its bracing indie-pop sound and the sharpness of Lyon’s lyrics. The song’s glossy beat belies the depth of its story and lures you in with its shine while pushing its audience to second-guess society’s demands on us in the name of an impossible pursuit of perfection.
Lyon describes the track’s inspiration in that it’s about how modern life encourages us all to be locked in a pernicious pursuit of perfection, we’re all celebs for our lives, worshippers at the altar of our egos. With lines that aim at the scrutiny with which we dissect the perfect image, the ideal mother, the perfect wife, or the perfect body, the song hammers home the impossible-to-reach ideals constantly being shoved in the face of humans in the age of social media. It’s an honest examination of how these forces infiltrate everything in our lives, making us feel disconnected and insufficient in our desperation to be good enough.
The “Perfect” video, directed by Sel MacLean, is the visual companion to the song’s deeper dive into image and self-presentation. Maclean’s directorial interpretation perfectly matches Lyon’s raw, unvarnished brand of storytelling, which is as reckless and raw as the track itself. Lyon’s forthcoming 11-track debut album “Poems & Non-Fiction” is a product of precisely the experiences working against her as a disabled woman in music and the life-long feelings of others. Her music navigates the many complications of being human, embracing the messiness and paradoxes that make life beautifully uncontrollable. In “Perfect,” Ruth Lyon asks you to stop and think about the unrealistic ideals we all chase and start appreciating the inconvenient, messy truth about ourselves.
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