Luciid returns with debut album reeluv
After years spent at the forefront of hard techno’s global explosion, Irish producer LUCIID is stepping away from the noise and back toward the music itself.
Released via Be Yourself Music, REELUV is the debut album from the artist born Luke Pollock, and perhaps the most revealing statement of his career to date. Spanning fourteen tracks, including a bonus Schranz Edit of ‘Nothing To Lose’, the album arrives not as a collection of peak-time weapons, but as a deeply personal document exploring creativity, identity, burnout, reinvention and the search for authenticity in an increasingly attention-driven music landscape.
For many listeners, LUCIID became synonymous with the harder edges of contemporary techno through viral records such as ‘Paro Hour’, ‘Bunker Buster’ and ‘Bye Bye’. Yet behind the success, Pollock found himself questioning the culture surrounding the scene he helped build.
“I’ve called it Reeluv because it’s about falling in love with music as an art form again,” he explains. “My scene has, to a point, really stepped away from a focus on music itself, demanding online attention instead. I want this record, and all its genres, to bring people back to music.”
That tension between artistic expression and algorithmic relevance sits at the heart of REELUV. Across the album, LUCIID moves freely between schranz, hard techno, breakbeat, trance, melodic electronics and cinematic textures, refusing to be confined by the expectations attached to his name.
“I’m an artist first and foremost. My generation no longer understands what a real artist is; someone with an opinion and a belief system. I’m proud to stand for who I am and what I believe in,” he says. “This is the most LUCIID thing I’ve ever done. I don’t want to be defined. I want to be hard to define.”
The album’s origins stretch back several years. Tracks such as ‘6AM’ and ‘Sakura’ were written during the pandemic while Pollock was studying in Dundalk. Others emerged from hotel rooms and airports during relentless touring schedules across Europe. Together, they form a narrative arc documenting an artist’s journey through creative exhaustion and back toward inspiration.
Rather than releasing the project in one traditional album drop, LUCIID chose to unveil REELUV through four separate EP chapters. Each release carried its own title, visual identity and emotional significance, gradually revealing different pieces of the wider story.
“We wanted each release to sit a bit longer with the listener,” he explains. “We wanted this album to feel like a real LP, and each EP to be a chapter. The metaphor is about how real artists find themselves struggling with the anti-artistic demands of 2026 and all the emotions that come with it.”
Those chapters explore themes increasingly familiar to modern musicians: the pressure to remain constantly visible online, the dependency on algorithms, and the fragile relationship between popularity and artistic value.
“The obsession with being always online, living off constant attention, has become the livelihood of the industry,” says Pollock. “An artist’s career can collapse overnight if the sonics change or if platforms change their algorithms. The whole project is about finding your feet again and ultimately reaching that euphoric feeling of being genuine to yourself and to your fans.”
The concept extends beyond the music itself. Every visual, release schedule and creative decision surrounding REELUV was designed to reinforce the album’s central message: that art deserves time, depth and emotional engagement in an era increasingly dominated by short-form consumption.
“This album is not a quick hit,” says LUCIID. “It’s a collection that brings you on a journey through emotion, energy and my own personal struggles. I want people to feel an emotional connection to each song.”
Commercially, the project arrives with significant momentum already behind it. The first three REELUV EPs have amassed more than two million streams, while LUCIID now attracts over one million monthly Spotify listeners. Singles ‘Hard Truths’, ‘Pray’ and ‘Charm’ all reached the Beatport Hard Techno Top 10, demonstrating that audiences were willing to follow him beyond straightforward genre expectations.
Yet success is not the story LUCIID seems most interested in telling.
“Never sell out. It’s a short way to a shallow success,” he reflects. “That advice was given to me many years ago, and it’s a good way to think about this project.”
In many ways, REELUV feels less like a debut album and more like a reset. A reminder that behind the statistics, social media metrics and festival line-ups, electronic music still begins with an artist trying to communicate something honest.
For LUCIID, that honesty became the album itself.
“The release of Reeluv has allowed me to do all this; fall in love with music all over again.”
