Review Summary: I knew it when I first saw you.
How can you honestly talk about an EP that speaks for itself?
After releasing two albums and blowing some serious fresh air into the modern folk-scene, albeit unnoticed, young Canadian songwriter Andrew Huang decided to release a little EP called Love Songs. The tracklist would be five new songs and three new renditions of older songs, namely Stay, Teenage Heaven and Your Heart. And that's pretty much just exactly what it is.
See, there really is little point in talking about this thing. This is a massively stripped down little collection of songs consisting basically just of Andrew, his ukulele and/or guitar and a few guest musicians here and there. The sound is extremely toned down, creating a very intimate atmosphere, which is almost like Andrew sitting in front of you, which, to be honest, is extremely charming. It's slightly lo-fi quality gives off an extremely fuzzy feeling.
The melodies on this EP are very soft and floating. This is music to calm you down after a turbulent day, where you just want to relax. This is music to sing to your lover. This is music to reminisce to. However, the songs are so stripped down, they risk of fading into nothingness, with just Andrews voice keeping them in this realm of existence. The biggest, most alive song on this EP, if you were searching for that, is the new version of Teenage Heaven, which is just ten times more gorgeous than the original on Autumn, with its careful atmospheric layers and the more prominent glockenspiel.
In conclusion, this is a good EP. Nothing too substantial on here, but just charming and smile-inducing enough to re-listen to it a few times. And hey, maybe this is your stepping stone into his music. It could be, just give it a try.
