Building on a breakout year that saw her earn Spotify Editorial support and recognition as a rising voice in indie pop, Montreal singer-songwriter Libby Ember shares “Pool Life,” a wistful and quietly reflective single that captures the feeling of watching life unfold from the outside and wondering what it would be like to step fully into it. Blending intimate lyricism with airy, understated production, the track explores social longing, identity, and the subtle ache of feeling just outside the frame of “cool” or effortless belonging.

At its core, “Pool Life” is about perception: the way certain people seem to move through life with spontaneity and ease, as if constantly living inside a moment you were never quite invited into. For Libby, the image of “Pool Life” became a metaphor for that distance.

“It’s about watching people’s lives from the outside, seeing the way that the ‘cool’ people choose to live, and feeling like I’m missing out on that,” Libby explains. “The title just encapsulated that feeling for me since when I think about these people I just imagine hanging out by the pool and spontaneously jumping in as a metaphor for the way they live their lives ‘on the spot’.”

Unlike much of her earlier work, “Pool Life” also marks a subtle shift in approach, embracing a more live, band-oriented recording process. Built with real musicians rather than solely MIDI-based production, the track features live drums, bass, and guitar, giving it a more organic, immediate feel.

“This song doesn’t have a chorus, only verses, and it was super fun to record since we brought in real musicians,” Libby says. “Working with other musicians is always so much fun. It just makes the song sound more alive and more human, which nowadays is even more important than it was before. It’s cool to be able to play off of each other.”

That sense of immediacy carries through into the writing as well. Among the song’s most vivid lines is the lyric “I wanna be the it girl, ticket in the pit girl,” a phrase that distills the track’s central tension between observation and participation, admiration and distance, longing and self-awareness.

Even in its softness, “Pool Life” feels rhythmically alive. It’s a song that doesn’t resolve its yearning so much as sit inside it, resulting in one of Libby’s most emotionally direct and conversational releases to date.