Those of a gnarly disposition could easily be put off listening to My Precious Bunny by the name. That would be a mistake. It misleadingly suggests something horrendously cutesy and is, in fact, the term of endearment given to Lily Wolter by her mother. ‘A Moment in my Eyes’ marks the solo debut from Wolter, better known as part of sibling duo Penelope Isles. While lyrically it has the intimacy of diary entries, the music covers an ambitious spectrum of instrumentation, including choirs, violin, saxophone, glockenspiel and synths.
‘A Moment in my Eyes’ started as a lockdown project. Even six years after the first Covid wave, it is still a noticeable inspiration for many new releases which is understandable as it was the major disruption to normal life for most in the Western world, although it is important to remember that many in places including Ukraine, Palestine and Iran have not had the luxury of only one external upheaval in a generation. For Wolter, fresh out of a relationship split, lockdown was spent back at her parents in Cornwall, dealing with insecurity, low self-esteem, memories and jealousies, while enjoying working on demos and going surfing. Once her brother Jack was engaged on his excellent Cubzoa project, Wolter took the opportunity to work on this collection of songs with Allister Kellaway.
What emerges is, in a good way, a sprawling, messy record. There is a sense of ‘what if we try this?’ to the album. That daring is apparent from the opening song, ‘Times That Passed’, which immediately bursts forth with Wolter joined by a nine-woman choir. Written in the midst of a breakup, sleeping in separate rooms under the same roof, it captures upset and regret rather than anger. With Holly Carpenter’s violin joining with Wolter’s saxophone and organ, it has a tingly, fuzzy feel indicative of the sepia, nostalgic mood that is one of the record’s most constant qualities.
‘Blackcurrants’ is less wholesome than it sounds. Starting off as an indie strummed ode to double vodka-blackcurrant-soda in a pint glass, its bridge leads into a woozy break that namedrops the mighty Deerhoof’s ‘My Purple Place’ and mixes dissonance and harmony. The closing lines – “hop along to the next place / drink it dry till we cry” – captures drink until you forget angst. Alex G-inspired jarring synths are the stars of ‘Tryin’ But I’m Dyin’’, closely followed by 90s indie guitar band melodies, in a tale of desperate dating. ‘Wack’ is slower with downbeat guitar chords and has an artifice-free diary-like quality in cataloguing the helplessness of watching her brother struggling with his mental health, although overlapping vocal melodies and whirring keyboards lift the song.
On ‘The Joys of Adulthood’, Wolter’s voice is so faint it is as if she is embarrassed by its story of struggling to cope with life. Mostly, she is accompanied by strummed guitar but there are moments of luscious saxophone, like a warm bathe in reverie, while a burst of bristling drums suggests inner turmoil. More of a 90s indie guitar romp, ‘Young Pup’ references the youthful man in the off licence serving her bottles of red wine prior to band practice. The sound gets messy mirroring the group’s collapse in discipline post-lockdown. As is the way of diary entries, there are plentiful coded references to people and ‘KookieCannibal’ riffs on Kellaway recording as Last Living Cannibal. With its harmonies and washes of synths, it is airy and dreamy. The brief instrumental ‘Longacre’ has a background voice note over which piano creates the feel of sound drifting outside through open doors in summertime.
‘Punchin’’ has the biggest, crunchiest riffs, reverb and, aptly, a punchy rhythm. It is led by self-doubt and over-thinking, a lack of control in relationships illustrated by the lines “I am the worm / you are the bird driving a Mustang.” Taking musical inspiration from Ween’s ‘Tried and Tested’, ‘I Go Up, You Go Down’ finds Wolter singing in a lower register and documenting incidents from the pandemic era, including her father returning with bite marks from his work in a dementia home and her own post-relationship blues, but its harmonies give the song a fuzzy warmth. Borne in on sumptuous violin, the title track concludes ‘A Moment In My Eyes’. In a voice that is virtually a whispered sigh, over finger-picked guitar Wolter recounts a contented upbringing in the Isle of Man, contrasting it with her adult panic attacks, before the song whisks away on an exquisite carpet of violin, sax and organ.
There is no defined musical template to ‘A Moment In My Eyes’. It has a welcome sense of adventure with none of its eleven tracks sounding alike. Its constancy derives from the openness of Wolter’s words which offers a highly personal, moving insight into her life and vulnerabilities.
My Precious Bunny: A Moment In My Eyes – Out 22 May 2026 (Bella Union)
Precious Bunny • Blackcurrants (Official Music Video)
I was editor of the long-running fanzine, Plane Truth, and have subsequently written for a number of publications. While the zine was known for championing the most angular independent sounds, performing in recent years with a community samba percussion band helped to broaden my tastes so that in 2021 I am far more likely to be celebrating an eclectic mix of sounds and enthusing about Made Kuti, Anthony Joseph, Little Simz and the Soul Jazz Cuban compilations as well as Pom Poko and Richard Dawson.
