“Oceans of Kansas” - Lily Vakili
Photo Credit: Artist EPK
Lily Vakili’s Oceans of Kansas feels less like an album and more like a pilgrimage — a journey through time, memory, and the endless interior landscape of a woman reckoning with her own depths.
Recorded at the GRAMMY-winning Second Take Sound in New York City and produced by Reed Turchi, the album captures a living, breathing spirit — equal parts rock ’n’ roll thunder, intimate folk storytelling, and restless artistic experimentation. Mastered by the legendary Greg Calbi (Sterling Sound), it’s polished without ever losing its pulse.
From the opening track “Okoboji”, Vakili sets the tone — smoky, cinematic, and a little dangerous. Her voice — a weathered instrument full of texture and truth — pulls you in immediately. By the time “Hold On They Say” and “I’ve Been Hiding” unfold, it’s clear that Oceans of Kansas isn’t just about sound; it’s about excavation. These are songs written with a trowel and a torch, digging through emotional sediment and illuminating what lies beneath.
The title track’s concept — inspired by Vakili’s stop at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, Kansas — anchors the album in both geological and emotional metaphor. Standing before the fossils of the ancient inland sea that once covered the plains, Vakili found herself face to face with deep time — and the realization that we all carry our own buried artifacts. “I am the archivist, the archaeologist of my own life,” she says. You feel that throughout the record: each song a fossil, each lyric a fragment unearthed and held to the light.
Musically, Oceans of Kansas moves with the unpredictability of a shifting tide. Blues-soaked riffs crash into shimmering Bossa Nova rhythms (“Photograph” has a subtle, seductive sway), while tracks like “One Human Being” and “April Fools” roar with gritty soul and lyrical bite. Vakili’s storytelling is cinematic but grounded — she can sound like Patti Smith one minute and Norah Jones the next.
Photo Credit: Artist EPK
There’s also a sense of renewal in Vakili’s decision to release this record under her own name — shedding the “Vakili Band” moniker and stepping into full authorship. That return to self feels symbolic, especially given the album’s themes of rediscovery, resilience, and evolution.
At its core, this album is about survival — emotional, creative, and spiritual. It’s about facing the ghosts in your own sediment and singing to them until they dissolve. It’s the sound of someone standing in the vastness of their own life, whispering, “Everything is fleeting, everything is here.”
With Oceans of Kansas, Lily Vakili doesn’t just offer us songs — she offers us a mirror, an ocean, and permission to dive in.
“Oceans of Kansas” is available now on all major streaming platforms
