Lexie – Favorite Enemy
Portland, Oregon-based singer-songwriter Lexie has announced her debut solo album, Halcyon Days, set for release on June 26.
The record arrives in the wake of profound, life-altering change: a battle with dedifferentiated soft tissue liposarcoma involving months of chemotherapy and radiation, and the dissolution of a decade-long relationship that had shaped both her personal and creative worlds. Across its tracks, the album captures the disorienting process of rebuilding oneself after such seismic upheaval. While deeply rooted in grief, Halcyon Days ultimately emerges as a striking celebration of survival, self-discovery, and the beauty that remains after devastation. Lexie will celebrate the release with a special performance on June 26 at the Atlantis Lounge in Portland.
Lexie, also known as Alexandra Helgerson, shares the album’s latest single, “Favorite Enemy,” a striking and emotionally raw reflection on the unraveling of a long-term relationship in the aftermath of surviving cancer treatment.
“‘Favorite Enemy’ is about loving someone deeply while realizing that something between you may be broken beyond repair,” Lexie explains. “My former partner and I were intertwined in music and in life for so long that breaking the cycle of our problems felt nearly impossible. I felt stuck, like the world would collapse if I moved any which way. Then I got cancer, quit the band and the world didn’t collapse. He was a tremendous caregiver during my chemo time. Afterwards, our relationship slowly and painfully ended, and still the world did not collapse.”
The album was recorded in Portland with producer and composer Alex Callenberger (Clawfoot Slumber, Rattlesnake Mama), blending indie rock, indie pop, and folk influences with lush analog textures, soaring guitars, and emotionally direct songwriting. At its core the 11-tracks explore what happens when the life you once knew dissolves, and the only option left is to rebuild yourself from the ground up.
Already released singles have begun introducing listeners to the emotional and thematic core of the album. The title track, “Halcyon Days,” reflects on Lexie’s experience navigating chemotherapy and recovery, balancing the brutality of treatment with imagery of forests, rebirth, and renewal. “iRL” captures the disorienting aftermath of separation and divorce, exploring the tension between memory, intimacy, and disbelief as a once deeply intertwined relationship begins to disappear. On “We’re Never Going Out,” Lexie shifts toward joy and gratitude, celebrating female friendship, community, and the people who carried her through cancer recovery and heartbreak. Meanwhile, “Laura” leans into longing, mystery, and desire, wrapped in dreamy summer-night imagery and shimmering indie-pop textures that showcase another side of the album’s emotional landscape.
Songs move fluidly between mourning what was lost and celebrating the possibility of what still remains, creating a body of work rooted as much in resilience as vulnerability. There is also a strong thread of self-reclamation woven throughout the album. Whether reflecting on the intensity of romantic love, the sustaining force of female friendships, or the process of learning to trust herself again, Lexie writes with striking honesty and emotional precision.
Filled with vivid imagery of classic cars, summer nights, forests, cheap wine and California highways, Halcyon Days balances emotional heaviness with warmth, humor, and hope. The album also marks Lexie’s emergence as a solo artist after years of collaborative projects, fully embracing her own voice and instincts for the first time.
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