Lights (EP)

Background

Lights, an avid comic book fan, drew the cover of the EP. Within the EP booklet, she drew what Los Angeles Times writer Geoff Boucher described as "a white-winged space girl with a tapered laser pistol that Flash Gordon would admire." The illustration was accompanied by the caption: "Our struggles is not against flesh and blood but against the forces and powers of a dark world."

Beginning in February 2008, her song "February Air" was featured in a series of Old Navy television ads. The music video for the song premiered in December. Another track, "Drive My Soul", appeared during a 2008 episode of MTV's The Hills.

Release and reception

The EP was released on July 24, 2008. It was made available in Canada through Best Buy, HMV, and iTunes, and in the United States on iTunes. Later in the year, coinciding with Lights' touring, the EP was made available on CD in the US on September 16, 2008.

Three songs from Lights were released as singles: "Drive My Soul", "February Air", and "Ice". These songs, along with "The Last Thing on Your Mind", were later reworked and included on Lights' debut album, The Listening (2009).

Lights peaked at number 27 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers albums chart. Matthew Chisling of Allmusic remarked that the EP "found a large amount of commercial success" and "critical praise"—including Lights' 2009 Juno Award for New Artist of the Year—which led Warner Bros. to allow Lights to release The Listening almost a year later.