IDYL’s “L’ennui” is a song about the silence that has been loaded with everything the silence is not allowed to. IDYL, a Belgian singer, has been shaping this project since 2023, produced by Simon Le Saint and mixed by Nicolas Michaux and Rémy Lebbos, the song carries the listener the way a current carries a leaf, with no rush, toward a place the leaf did not choose. Boredom in this song is post-scroll, when the phone is finally down.
IDYL quotes her parents saying, “‘Being bored is a luxury!'” The line is meant to dismiss boredom, and the song makes the dismissal the diagnosis. Boredom is not the luxury the parents were naming. Boredom is the moment silence is allowed in, and the song is what silence sounds like when it has been loaded with everything the silence is no longer allowed to hold. The track captures the moment a person realizes they have been performing aliveness. IDYL has been working on this project since 2023, and the songs that came before, including the earlier track Illusion, were the project learning to name the feeling.
“L’ennui” is the world’s silence, written down. The earlier track Illusion, watched the bearings slip. “L’ennui” is the moment after the slip, when the body has stopped pretending the floor is steady. The silence has been waiting, and the song is not the only one with weight. The end of the song is a slow scroll, with the thumb still moving and the rest of the life not yet caught up.
