Alysha Takes Faith Into the Shadows on ‘Take It or Leave It’
There is an obvious contradiction in placing God and 666 inside the same song. For Alysha, that contradiction is exactly where things become interesting. On ‘Take It or Leave It’, the London-based artist takes faith somewhere it isn't usually expected to go, surrounding spiritual reflection with shadowy synths, gothic tension and nocturnal electronics. The result isn't a rejection of religious music so much as an argument that songs about belief don't have to sound conventionally devotional.
“I wanted to write a Goth/Electronic song about my faith which alternative people can also enjoy rather than the usual Gospel, R&B or Country you get with Christianity,” Alysha explains.
Co-produced with Matt Rist, ‘Take It or Leave It’ commits fully to that idea. Dark electronic textures give the track an atmosphere closer to an underground club than a church, while its new-wave instincts create a cool sense of distance around considerably more personal subject matter.
The reference to 666 pushes that contrast further. It's an intentionally provocative piece of symbolism, exploiting the expectations attached to the number before revealing a much simpler premise underneath. As Alysha puts it herself: “It's an Alternative genre song talking about God.”
That directness is refreshing. Rather than overcomplicating her intentions, Alysha allows the tension to come from the setting. Faith, temptation and personal boundaries are placed within music that traditionally carries very different associations, challenging the assumption that spirituality belongs to any particular genre.
It also feels like a natural culmination of Alysha's unusually broad influences. Raised in St John's Wood with Cuban-Indian heritage, her musical reference points stretch from Beyoncé, Lauryn Hill and Joss Stone to Siouxsie & The Banshees and gospel. ‘Take It or Leave It’ doesn't neatly reconcile those worlds; it benefits from allowing them to rub against one another.
That increasingly adventurous identity arrives as Alysha prepares for a significant step forward onstage. In October, she will support LANY across four major Asian dates, including three stadium shows in Japan and one in South Korea, her biggest live opportunity to date. Following appearances at Wild Paths and Forwards Festival, it represents a considerable expansion in scale for an artist who has already accumulated more than three million Spotify streams.
What's notable is that Alysha isn't responding to that growth by making her music safer. Instead, ‘Take It or Leave It’ moves deeper into the shadows, embracing the goth, new-wave and electronic influences that make her harder to categorise. Alysha isn't asking whether faith and darkness are allowed to occupy the same musical space. She's simply putting them there and seeing what happens.
With stadium stages waiting, breaking the rules might prove a particularly useful habit.
