LOS ANGELES, CA- When Lydia Night stepped onto the stage at The Echo last month, she carried more than just a new album in her setlist. She carried the weight of reinvention. Her debut solo record, Parody of Pleasure, released on August 8th, marked the first chapter of her career outside of The Regrettes; the Los Angeles band that first introduced her as a sharp, fearless voice in punk-leaning pop. What unfolded that night was less a tentative debut and more a declaration: Lydia Night isn’t joking when she says she’s becoming a pop star. She already is one.
The Regrettes built their reputation on a fiery mix of punk energy and infectious melody. Beneath the guitars and attitude, Night’s songwriting always hinted at something broader. There were choruses that could stick in your head for days, hooks that leaned pop even when they were wrapped in distortion. That tension made the band thrilling, but it also suggested Night’s compass was pointing toward something bigger.
Parody of Pleasure confirms it. Critics have described the album as polished, hook-driven, and self-aware, drawing comparisons to the likes of Gwen Stefani and Carly Rae Jepsen. Tracks like “The Hearse” and “Pity Party” show her willingness to put confessional lyricism in pop clothing, while songs such as “Little Doe” and “Love Dumb” sparkle with the kind of choruses you can imagine echoing across festival fields. The album is playful, catchy, and yet weighted with vulnerability… the same qualities that always made her stand out, just amplified through a new lens.
Her Echo set leaned heavily on the new material, as expected, but Night was careful to weave in threads of her past. Alongside highlights from Parody of Pleasure, she broke out Regrettes favorites like “Barely on My Mind”, “You’re So Fucking Pretty”, and “Living Human Girl”. Hearing these songs in a solo context underscored how much of The Regrettes’ melodic accessibility was hers all along.
And then there was the cover of Madonna’s “Material Girl” a sly nod that carried more weight than it might seem. Night attacked the performance with a mix of reverence and audacity, channeling the Queen of Pop’s bravado while making the moment her own. It was proof that the “pop star” label she jokingly tossed out on stage isn’t something she needs to downplay. Her performance showed she can occupy that space comfortably.
As a record, Parody of Pleasure is easy to enjoy but harder to pin down. For me, Love Dumb has been on repeat. The melody is so natural, the vulnerability so disarming, that it sticks even when you can’t articulate why. That mystery is part of its magic. Reviews have pointed to the album’s balance of humor and honesty, noting how Night folds irony into earnestness. Little Doe, for instance, feels as much like a diary entry as it does a pop anthem.
The album also benefits from Night’s refusal to sand down her personality. Some pop debuts strain under the pressure to polish everything to perfection, but Parody of Pleasure is still unmistakably Lydia: cheeky, confessional, and sometimes uncomfortably honest. It’s a record that embraces its contradictions, which is exactly why it works.
Watching Night step into this new era feels particularly meaningful given the challenges she’s faced. In interviews, she’s spoken candidly about struggles with mental health, grief, and the dissonance of trying to keep pushing forward with The Regrettes when her heart wasn’t in it anymore. Leaving a successful band is never easy; it risks alienating fans and erasing momentum. Yet here she is, not only surviving the leap but thriving in it. As someone who has enjoyed her music since The Regrettes’ earliest days, it was reassuring to see Night taking personal hardships and turning them into art that feels both deeply personal and invitingly universal.
The Echo show felt like more than just any concert. It was a proof of concept for Lydia Night’s solo career. The crowd sang along not only to the familiar Regrettes tracks but to the brand-new ones as if they’d been around for years. There was a tangible sense of arrival, the kind of atmosphere where you realize you’re witnessing an artist step into a new identity in real time.
If The Regrettes gave Night her foundation, Parody of Pleasure is the house she’s building on top of it: colorful, daring, sometimes messy, but undeniably hers. And if her Echo performance was any indication, it’s a house large enough to welcome in the masses.
So when Lydia Night laughed about becoming a pop star, I wanted to shake my head. That ship has sailed. Between the strength of her debut album, the critical reception it’s receiving, and the sheer command she brought to The Echo stage, she’s already there. Lydia Night has stepped into the spotlight alone… and she shines.
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Lydia Night Shines at The Echo: Parody of Pleasure Proves She’s a Pop Star
