Shirley Zhu returns with another precise twee-pop jewel- where intricately arranged melodies float in from some imagined 00s movie soundtrack where everyone’s lives seem better than mine. What is the purpose of your visit? is a beautiful little collection that should, if all was well with the world, set fuvk on a path to fully-fledged mainstream success.
This set of songs is filled with many meticulous moments- music as mathematics- where patterns and precision are key. It toys with hyperpop textures here and there, whilst delivering characteristic moments of quiet acoustic intimacy, and although an insular and at times inward looking sound world is crafted – this is still very much pop in the truest sense – radio-friendly and inviting – and will no doubt grace many a curtain-drawn bedroom’s speakers this summer.
This is personal diary music wrapped in mainstream clothing in many ways which despite its furtive bedroom-pop origins feels like something possessed of mass appeal; here contemporary anxieties and modern concerns are delivered with a curious combination of open-hearted emotion and wry, knowing irony- but somehow it all works wonderfully. Vocals are conspiratorial and hushed but also clinically pinpoint in their accuracy – occasionally toyed with further through processed manipulation. When double-tracked they offer even more soulfully emotive meanders and when joined by the whispered additions of Mitch Webb (on July) a further sense of calm and collective beauty is reached. Handlebars, reflecting on how life’s fragmentary moments take on strange significance with passing time- begins things beautifully, it’s gossamer strings plucked with dexterous grace as a direct and emotive melody leads the listener down its shimmering path, Processed beats skitter subtly beneath it and the occasional surprise sample and sonic texture is added in for good measure.
Therapy experiments with post-production details further – sonic ripples that shiver down your headphones, drawing upon the growing gamut of modern pop pulses as that pure but almost metallic voice continues to deliver its conflicting and detached narratives. Amateur Hour allows vocals to be massed further again and that deft acoustic guitar entwined with more slippery electric notes – it’s a moment of direct beauty- it’s instrumental breaks and intricate picking taking on a Sufjan Stevensesque reverence. Those subtle production details and open reverb adding further dreamlike ambience.
Bootleg Aphrodite feels like a summer hit. Beats bouncing in sweet synchronicity as the song toys with emo-pop dynamics; once more the melody is a sparkling shining thing, particularly when that chorus pours in like a shimmering sea. July is a sedate and serene ending – classic folky twee-pop, showing once more that fuvk is a clear-eyed captain steering bedroom-pop towards a truly popular, fan-thronged horizon.
What is the purpose of your visit? is out now- grab a cassette before they are sold out!
Written by M.A Welsh (Misophone)
Music | Misophone (bandcamp.com)
