Perhaps it’s for their excellent songwriting abilities, or maybe for their beautiful perspective that seems to bleed into all of their work, one thing is for certain: the internet cannot get enough of Leith Ross! After gaining notoriety firstly for their ability to capture deep, intimate longing within their first viral song: “We’ll Never Have Sex”, the small yet immensely dedicated following accumulated by the artist has been absolutely enraptured by them ever since.
While many initially found Ross through social media, I hesitate to harp on that notion too heavily. Though many artists have been discovered that way, I feel that Ross’s work is too pure, too poignant, too truly and deeply poetic to be comfortably categorized there. The air they capture within their music is unique and ephemeral. It’s one of gentleness, of intimacy, and of pure unadulterated pining. As many have said within their comments regarding the artist, Ross seems to put words to feelings that otherwise couldn’t be discovered. They are a true wordsmith and more than that, a poet!
I Can See The Future was released on September 19th, 2025. As we will discuss later, the album explores themes of love, grief, nostalgia, and the way that they’re somehow intertwined. And with that, how optimism and hope can be used as a triumphant outcry and a weapon against the seemingly unending hate and violence permeating through the state of the world. It is a love letter to the human experience, in all of its beauty, ugliness, and everything in between.
TikTok influence and early work
Leith began posting their music in April of 2021. Their content was simple: just them, their guitar, and their beautifully delicate vocals. As they typically do on TikTok, things progressed rather quickly. The second video they posted on October 9th, 2021, amassed 8.8 million views, 1.2 million likes, and countless shares. Even now, four years later, the song still circulates around the internet, gaining seemingly universal love and adoration.
Ross continued posting on TikTok, and still does to tease their work . This casualness and intimacy contribute to the general air of closeness captured within their work. Their content is so quiet, gentle, and so utterly personal. It’s no wonder that often their fans express that they took the words right out of their head, only making them perhaps a bit more flowery and poetic.
They released their first album Motherwall in 2020. The album was short, sweet, with a handful of songs that stretched within a half an hour. It holds gems like “Everyone I’ve Never Met”, and “Tommy”. But upon reflection it’s evident they hadn’t quite matured into their sound. The singles, EPs, that followed snowballed Leith’s career immensely. People loved to follow the work in progress that way Leith Ross and for good reason. By the time To Learn was released they had amassed a cult following, and curated a grounded sense of who they were musically. Now with I Can See The Future, seem to be truly creatively flourishing.
The power of optimism
“I Can See The Future”, is not only the ideological beating heart of the album, but also a peak behind the curtain to Ross’s beliefs. In an interview with The Line of Best Fit, Ross explains: “It refers to this depth of understanding about the world that then allows you to believe that the world is good or will be good.” In recent times I’ve heard a resounding echo from Ross as well as other artists generally, involving the protection and preservation of hopefulness.
This song serves as a clear example of that notion. In Ross’s own words, it was written from the perspective of someone hundreds of years from now. Someone living in a world of peace, calm, and bliss, looking back at the era of tumult and turmoil we’re all facing now. It reinstates the belief that just because things aren’t okay now, they will not always be that way.
Furthermore, a similar choice was made in the song “Grieving”. Ross spoke further on their personal social media explaining, originally that the song was supposed to sound a bit grim and downturned sonically. In fact, if you scroll far enough down on their TikTok you can see the early days of the song’s makeup. However, when producing the song for its release they took a different route. They choose to underscore the devastating lyrics of the song with a punchy, quick drum beat and a beautiful symphony of folk instruments from cowbells to banjos. The song details the intimacy between grief and love, how one cannot exist without the other, and how both are integral to the human experience.
Community building
As stated prior, Ross makes these choices to stand among the few who find a way to remain hopeful. Additionally, as seen on their social media, they often host community and donation centric events from impromptu soccer matches in various cities they stayed in throughout the tour, to simply promoting local mutual aid opportunities. As a queer, trans, artist, with a fan base filled with my queer and trans people, Ross seems to have embraced the unique responsibility of forging true community based support. And beyond that encourages that among their fans as well.
Additional highlights
This album in its entirety is a warm, spring, breeze. In typical Leith Ross fashion, it is a soft, comforting embrace. However there is certainly a notable twist with this release in particular. Much of Ross’s previous work was comparable to the songs posted on their social media. They involved almost exclusively their guitar, backing vocals, and the occasional pitter patter of a swishing dumb. However, this time around there was a slightly more pop-ish sprinkle of production.
Particularly in songs such as “Terrified” and “Stay, there was a very noticeable uptick in production quality. In both songs, Ross’s vocals are layered rather heavily creating an almost synth-esque sound. These vocals are further highlighted by quick, breezy, backing musicality. This change in sound was not only great artistic choice but Iit further underscores the heart of the album. Previous work from Ross was often, in tandem with its beauty, rather mournful. Often discussing very intimately, breakups, mental health crises, and things alike that nature. I Can See The Future, is bright, bubbly and produced to sound like a celebration!
Closing this chapter
Overall, this album is a perfect ten. It is a love letter to the human experience and all it encompasses. It achieves its goal of comforting and instilling hope within the audience seemingly effortlessly. Lastly, I think it would be an immense disservice to mention Ross’s community-building qualities without further instilling their point. As easy as it is to cower in the face of fear, adversity, and bigotry, to do so would lead to our ultimate failure. It is undoubtably within our best interest to look at hope as less of a final destination, and more of a daily discipline. If there’s one thing this album urges it’s listeners to do it is to notice and to bear witness. To turn to our loved ones, to our neighbors, and even to strangers and envelope them with unrelenting and unyielding warmth and kindness.
So, if you ever find yourself in a moment of weakness after doom scrolling for far, far too long, or if the world in all of its ugliness and shame feels far too loud, I recommend giving this album a listen!
