Layla Rey returns with Love You Better, an upbeat yet emotionally honest dance record that turns self-awareness into rhythm.
Layla Rey sounds like someone who takes things on the fly. Now she sounds like someone who has done her job and invites you to meet her there.
The half-black, half-Filipino R&B pop star’s latest single, “Love You Better,” is released ahead of her upcoming dance EP Love at First Lust, and it packs a different punch than you might expect from an uptempo record. This is not a club song pretending to have depth. Depth is the point.
Built on a driving, euphoric pulse that locks energy into it, “Love You Better” is a love song about emotional unavailability—the kind of love song written by a man who knows he’s the problem. This kind of self-awareness is not usually so contagious. Layla Rey makes it look effortless.
Her voice is velvet smooth but purposeful. Every line felt like she had been holding it in for years and finally found the right rhythm to finish it. The chorus is like a release—not just musically, but emotionally. You feel the weight lift.
An artist with the grit of Compton and the elegance of Motown, Layla Rey has always possessed two worlds at once—vulnerability and strength, street instinct and sonic sophistication. “Love you better” doesn’t resolve this tension. It leans into it. She wasn’t trying to be classy. She tried to be real. On a dance record. It works.
First love is coming. Consider this your warning.
