“The One Uncoded” - Leyla Romanova
Photo Credit: Artist EPK
The One Uncoded by Leyla Romanova is not just a track; it’s a rebirth.
Leyla was just 11 when she first saw The Matrix, and it blew the lid off her understanding of what was possible. You can almost hear that original awe baked into the DNA of the song. It’s cinematic, mysterious, and pulsing with a kind of awakened energy, like someone slowly becoming aware they’ve been sleepwalking through life. In fact, that’s exactly what the story behind the song is: after a major shake-up in 2012, Leyla drifted into a fog of "normality," just going through the motions. Then—bam—a jolt of synchronicity, some intense déjà vu while rewatching The Matrix 4, and something inside her reactivated. From that reawakening, The One Uncoded was born.
Now let’s talk sound. This track is sleek and shadowy. Imagine if a deep, late-night conversation with your subconscious had a synth-heavy soundtrack—it would sound like this. There’s a dark, pulsating groove under everything, and the production leans into this lush, almost futuristic ambience. It's not overproduced or trying to be overly trendy—it just is. The arrangement leaves space for emotion to breathe, and that makes every note feel more intimate, more intentional.
Leyla’s delivery is part spoken word, part confession, part digital prophecy. You can hear her reclaiming her voice, not just metaphorically but musically.
Elnarə Xəlilova, the Baku-based singer adds vocals which absolutely shimmer on this track. Her presence adds a haunting beauty—almost like the Oracle chiming in mid-song with an otherworldly reminder that you’re still capable of rewriting your code. It’s elegant, powerful, and surprisingly emotional.
Photo Credit: Artist EPK
The lyrics don’t spoon-feed you some pop cliché about empowerment. Instead, they feel like internal dialogue—fragments of a personal journey that the listener is invited to step into. You don’t need to know exactly what Leyla went through to feel it. That’s the mark of great songwriting: specificity that becomes universal. Lines about boundaries and belief hit hard when they come from someone who’s clearly lived it, lost it, and found their way back.
What’s most compelling is that The One Uncoded isn’t about becoming “The One” in some epic, chosen-one kind of way—it’s about becoming yourself again. It's about remembering who you were before life scrambled the signal. There’s something radical and deeply moving about reclaiming your own narrative, and this track does that in both its sound and story.
Also worth mentioning is how polished and cohesive everything feels, despite its deeply personal roots. It’s got that bedroom-electronica-meets-cyberpunk-underground-club vibe, but never gets too cold or distant. There’s warmth beneath the digital surface, and that’s what makes the song work—it’s human at its core.
Leyla Romanova didn’t just write a song—she wrote her way out of the fog. And lucky for us, she left the door open for the rest of us to follow.
“The One Uncoded” is available now on all major streaming platforms
