Review Summary: "How can I not be everything that you need?"
Right at the beginning of this year I had no idea who Shura is and most of the sputnik community doesn't seem to notice her too much either. Undeservedly so, in my opinion. I listened to Nothing's Real for the first time as it came out in July and it quickly became my personal summer indie-rock album of 2016. Touch was a successful single but I guess Shura flew under the radar for some time now. I personally considered this record as an indie-pop piece and I am gonna treat it as one in this review.
The album opens with a slightly more distorted intro to the first part of this piece, followed by the title track Nothing's Real. From the first beat on this is clearly very 80s influenced but always seems to have a few modern twists here and there. Touch is a minimalistic pop-song with some 90s R&B influences and a very coherent wall of sound. The synthesizer riff and Shura's voice are coated in eerie pads to lead the ultimately very dreamy break-up song. Touch is followed up by my personal favorite track Kidz'N'Stuff. It seems like a more in-depth explanation of Touch's storyline and adds an even dreamier vibe to it, almost melodramatically re-telling the story. It also highlights one of Shura's thematic strengths: her honest storytelling.
"I never thought that we'd break up / Thought we'd get married and have Kidz'n'Stuff" / "How can I not be everything that you need?"
Shura is not afraid to embarass herself in her stories. She is the idiot and constantly hopes and expects way too much. I don't know if it's because I am a 17-year old gay dude or if it's just generally relateable but her lyrics always struck me as so right. "Maybe I knew right from the start / And that's exactly how I broke us down". Shura is talking a lot about love and failed relationships but refuses to blame failure on her girl/boyfriends (sidenote: I think she's gay). She seems to blame herself but also believes in fate. Make It Up also makes clear that she is in self doubt and wondering, if any of her romantic partners ever felt the same. Doubts and despair are always components of her lyrics. There are a lot of questions that are left unanswered, leaving Shura unsatisfied and desparate for something real, which leads me to believe that the title was chosen because of these thematic components.
Sonically Shura manages to merge what seems to be her favorite music together. Dreamy riffs and futuristic 80s beats with some 70s rock influences. It clearly is a pop record but incredibly imaginative in my eyes. She gets funky, dude.
I am not sure if you could consider this album a concept-piece but it surely has a few themes that reoccur. My only critique at this point is, that the album seems to be structured quite randomly. The songs sound great in the order that they are in but thematically jump back and forth and also the intros sound very nice but seem to make no sense in terms of dividing the album into two parts.
I don't know about you but I adore this person and her music makes me sing, dance and feel myself. It's her debut record and it definitely has it's flaws but I can't help but love it to its core.
