Cream Premiere: Lackhoney Gets Reflective in ‘All Gone’ [Fresh Track]

Back in the spring, Lackhoney released Sweets, a short but powerful collection of songs that we recognized as the year's Best Hip-Hop EP in our Best of Nashville issue. At the time of the release, the nimble rapper and inventive producer, born Aly Lakhani, was also finishing up his final semester as an undergrad at Vanderbilt. Today, we’re very pleased to premiere the single “All Gone,” a track he refers to as the “senior thesis” of his collegiate musical career.

The opening of the piece might be surprising to longtime Lackhoney listeners. It’s a thundering emo rock setting, which after a short time gives way to a kind of Bon Iver-esque electronically enhanced folk sound. Then a couple of hard-hitting rap verses come in, followed by reprises of the other two parts. Not unlike, say, “Happiness Is a Warm Gun,” the different segments reinforce each other and shape the song into a cohesive whole. The way these disparate elements lock together mirrors the experiences Lakhani is reflecting on in the song.

“It’s a meditation on loss and acceptance and a dose of reality in a world where the truth doesn’t always present itself readily,” Lakhani says in a release. “It’s three vastly different sonic backdrops to score my personal journey to accepting the passage of time, with the outro embodying a sobering realization and acceptance of the impermanence of every chapter in life. It’s an exploration into sonic ranges I’ve never attempted before and a fusion between sounds that are both comfortable and uncomfortable to me. I hope it challenges and rewards listeners in a similar way.”

Lakhani worked with an array of local musicians on the song, including his band The Hive; singer-songwriters Landon Sears and Theo Kandel and Arlie’s Nate Banks; and Grammy- and Dove-winning producer Dirty Rice. There’ll be a three-part visual for the piece produced by Trent Millspaugh, who worked on the short film for Sweets (in addition to work he’s done with others like Taylor Swift and Mumford and Sons). Stream or buy the track from your favorite service with this handy link or see the below Spotify embed below, and keep up with Lackhoney on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.