Liya Shapiro - Burning Bridges

On rotation: Liya Shapiro “Burning Bridges”

Liya Shapiro, a London-based singer songwriter, released her latest track “Burning Bridges,” a five-minute song focused on emotional collapse that refuses to follow a typical structure of sound. Released earlier this month, the track has both moments of quiet despair and explosive confrontation, offering an unpredictable sound that feels almost theatrical.

The song opens softly, almost like a lullaby, with whispered vocals and a piano line that nods to Beethoven’s “Für Elise.” Shortly after, everything breaks open with features of gritty guitars and pounding drums. These shifts keep coming, with moments of soft to loud, like the emotional waves that come when living in a period of self destruction. It’s a sound that’s somewhere between dream pop and post-punk, with the mood swings of early Arctic Monkeys or even Brandi Carlile’s early release of “The Story.”

Lyrically, “Burning Bridges” speaks deeper about the title and is focused on self-sabotage, but more so in the small everyday choices that eventually take a toll. For example, there are lyrics such as “Bolder and bipolar, say I know / that’s what my love truly is” that lean into dark humour and self-awareness. Furthermore, there are moments where the music perfectly matches the vocal delivery, such as an unpredictable guitar solo near the three-minute mark that fades into a fragile bridge where Liya practically whispers into the void.

In this release, Shapiro shows her unique creativity as an artist, where she doesn't conform to one genre and she uses her emotions to her benefit to stand out in a (sometimes) predictable music scene. She pulls from many places, including art rock, dream pop, jazz, classical, but makes her song feel cohesive and thoughtful from start to finish. It’s a song that demands attention as it is unstable, vulnerable, and full of turns. To better sum it up, it’s a five-minute portrait of what it feels like to fall apart quietly, but completely.