CHUU’s “XO, My Cyberlove” Dreams in Synth-Pop Pixels
Photo: ATRP
Virtual and ethereal, CHUU’s first full-length album XO, My Cyberlove, offers a dream-pop nine-song vocal showcase laced with yearning, loneliness, and postmodern internet romance. CHUU captures the emptiness of distance and the irony of online romance in her atmospheric title track “XO, My Cyberlove.” CHUU is in love, but it’s bittersweet, driven by pixels, screens, and text messages rather than touch. The track’s atmospheric synths and CHUU’s gauzey vocals echo this divide, making for a gentle dream-pop title track that’s tinged in sadness.The rest of the album follows in kind, adding snatches of swing, retro-pop, and afrobeats, all of which encircle CHUU’s easygoing vocals.
TRACKLIST:
“XO, My Cyberlove”
“Canary”
“Cocktail Dress”
“Limoncello”
“Teeny Tiny Heart”
“Love Potion”
“Heart Tea Bag”
“Hide & Seek”
“Loving You!”
True to its name, accompanying B-side “Canary” sings, swoops, and dives through CHUU’s richest vocal performance on the album. “Come flying to me,” she pleads, in a song that matches her soaring vocals with a heartbeating percussion line. “Canary” is the extension and explosion of the sadness that tints “XO, My Cyberlove,” and a powerhouse track that shines throughout the length of the album.
“Cocktail Dress” lightens the mood with it’s pop-rock bassline, as CHUU preens in her cocktail dress, a short and sweet interlude between its saddened predecessor and forthcoming dance tracks: “Limoncello” and “Teeny Tiny Heart.” “Limoncello” is built for high-fashion dancey flair, minimal plinky percussion and layered airy vocals. “Teeny Tiny Heart” does a full U-turn in musical theatre-esque swing and jazz and mixed tempos. “Love Potion” shifts towards afrobeats ease, “I feel like a pink love potion” CHUU croons, while still holding her vocal ground. With a name as softened as its lyrics, “Heart Tea Bag” seeps into sadness and rainy ambience again, with really satisfying vocal layering built to scratch your brain. The echoing vocals mimic the tension of the lyrics: “crying… laughing… love it… hate it… let it rain,” CHUU decides in this moodier, overcast track.
Closing track “Hide & Seek” brightens up the album with girlish, youthful cheer, as bright as ever for an idol known for her cheer. Capping off the album is “Loving You!” with its hyperpop beeps and synths calling back to CHUU’s cyber-forward theming. Explosive and in hyper-drive, “Loving You!” ends the album with the happier, natural conclusion to CHUU’s cyberlove: loving you.