On the Sufjan Stevens–esque track “Maker,” Vu murmurs, “Maker meet your super / Meet your lover / Meet your loser / What’s your number / I’m a 3-letter word like you.” The looping rhymes have an enchanting effect. Vu’s simple-but-poetic lyrics have been a consistent strength throughout her discography. Her voice is loud and clear, and the song is anthemic: “On my word / Kick me up from the gutter to the curb,” she sings to fuzzy, punk riffs. Guitar feedback kicks off the next track, “Gutter,” and it sounds as if Vu has shaken off a haze for the first time on the album. While there aren’t any weak links on Public Storage, “Keeper” is an obvious standout with a punchy beat and marks the turn of the record’s notable second half. “Nothing comes easy / Do you believe in family / Because I don’t think that I do,” Vu sings defiantly on the title track. For perhaps the first time in a long time, she is complete, and Public Storage is just the beginning.Many of the songs on Public Storage contain eerie undertones, and listening to them feels like walking alone at night. She reunites the fragments of herself into a work that is bold and propitious. On the other side of the aisle are poppy floor fillers such as “Aubade” and “Keeper.” Vu’s vocal range is best demonstrated on the latter, with lyrics that spin platitudes into waiting-to-be-tattooed maxims: “All the people you hurt for aren’t for you.” The high-water mark comes with the flute-bedaubed “My House.” Vu sings of living on the edge of the world, of wanting a home for her own, reflecting on her family’s transience during her childhood and teenage years.Īfter years of uncertainty, of having to lock parts of herself away in storage, Vu has taken charge of her future. With a wall of sound beneath her, Vu’s voice sounds charged with assertiveness despite the self-deprecating lyrics: “Kick me up/From the gutter to the curb.” Over moody, wintery guitars, she paddles in pessimism before questioning if her feelings are trustworthy: “No I don’t really care now/Or that’s what I’ll say/Who knows if it’s true?” “Gutter” has a similar tilt, but it’s bigger and more cinematic, Sharon Van Etten not Soccer Mommy. The title track has the biggest overlap with her EPs. More than that, though, it trades low fidelity for sonorous synth- and string-coated arrangements comparable with Angel Olsen, maturing her sound into work that could pass for her second or third full-length. Public Storage polishes what Vu investigated on Nicole Kidman / Anne Hathaway-2019’s two-disc EP inspired by her favorite big-screen belles namely the merger of dancey indie pop with glum, guitar-led contemplation. LA’s newest hype generator is the 21-year-old singer/songwriter, owner of a handful of scruffy but brilliant EPs and now armed with a debut album that’s equal parts club-ready (“Aubade”) and the soundtrack to late-night drives (“Anything Striking”). It happened to Car Seat Headrest, it happened to Jay Som, and it can happen to Hana Vu, too. And then the indie labels clamor for the awaited debut. Then comes the buzz-the undercurrent Spotify playlists, the 1 p.m. It begins with self-produced bedroom bops. The path to indie eminence seems to follow a pattern.
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