Lex Bucha has never sounded particularly interested in keeping things comfortable. Following 2025’s Painless Mode, the Dublin singer-songwriter returns with Dark Mode, a five-track EP that pushes further into the shadows while finding something strangely liberating in the process. Led by the Liam Geddes-produced ‘Faithless (Sacrifice)’, the project feels like a deliberate step away from simply documenting pain and towards confronting it head-on. There is anger here, but also a sense that something is finally beginning to shift.
Where Painless Mode channelled anxiety and family conflict into vulnerable songwriting, Dark Mode feels more immediate and instinctive. ‘Paranoid’ captures a restless uneasiness, while ‘Pill’ turns inward, finding resignation in its darker corners. Elsewhere, ‘Watch Me Fall’ and ‘Sweet Pain’ reveal different shades of the same emotional landscape, balancing vulnerability with a growing sense of defiance. Bucha’s songwriting remains personal, but the production gives those feelings a wider, more atmospheric frame.
That tension between electronic polish and emotional exposure is where Dark Mode finds its identity. Influences from The Weeknd and Lauv sit comfortably alongside the melodic sensibilities associated with Gavin James and the widescreen instincts of U2, yet Bucha is increasingly carving out his own space between those reference points. The songs are polished without feeling detached, allowing the bruised edges of the writing to remain visible beneath the production.
Perhaps the most compelling aspect of Dark Mode is that its darkness ultimately points towards something brighter. Bucha describes the EP as part of a turning point in his healing, and that sense of movement runs through the record. This is not simply a collection of songs about sadness, anger or resentment. It is the sound of an artist processing those emotions in real time, transforming them into something more cathartic. With Dark Mode, Lex Bucha sounds less like someone trapped inside the darkness and more like someone finally learning how to walk through it.
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