Photo: Basil Vargas

Lionel Boy glides his way through the effervescent “Mango Michelada”

Lionel Boy has shared the final single for his rapidly approaching debut album, the self-titled Lionel Boy. Named for a Mexican beer cocktail, “Mango Michelada” is perhaps the smoothest display yet of his delicately confident, addictingly groovy world.

Truly, along with other recent artists such as jopippins, Lionel Boy has been perfecting a sonic statement that’s got the attitude of, say, Future (“She try to play me like Nintendo”, “All my life I’ve been fuckin’ with savages”) with the absolutely serene sense of melody of James Blake at his softest and silkiest.

Speaking on the track’s genesis, Lionel Boy shares, “Last February, I moved into a rehearsal space in San Pedro. The space reeked of febreeze and various chemicals they used to mask the smell of stale cigarettes. My drummer Jacqueline and I would mess around for hours in that space singing nonsense. At the time, we were in the habit of drinking Mango Micheladas at every session. On one of those days, we started out cracking jokes and ended up with a song we couldn’t stop working on. COVID-19 hit about a week later and I ended up having to move out of the studio, but we continued to work on this track throughout the pandemic.

The single is truly something to behold, take a listen below.

Lionel Boy’s debut album Lionel Boy arrives on May 14 via Innovative Leisure (pre-order/save). You can find him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.