While the world is distracted by the Miley Cyrus album release, turn to Shura, who returns with her third album six years after her last.
And what a delight it is. Pure loveliness from start to finish, electro-art-pop that lies somewhere between Robyn and Brian Eno. Such areas can often be cold, but Shura’s trick is in bringing the warmth: Leonard Street is pure Harry Nilsson loveability; World’s Worst Girlfriend is the best song Cyndi Lauper never wrote.
But above all what you get from the album is a sense of entering someone’s inner landscape. No way around it, this album delves into the gloom but it’s never suffocating and rewards greater exploration.
Shura has always taken her own path, self-taught whiz-kid who has grown into a talent who retains that rare thing these days: mystery. As such, I Got Too Sad For My Friends has a thrilling vulnerability, with her singing of depression and isolation, yet lifting herself, and her listeners, up with remarkable songwriting nous and one of the best voices out there.
I Wanna Be Loved By You is a heartbreaker with a Greenwich Village feel, a folky tale of despair which is also a barroom singalong. If You Don’t Believe in Love pulls a similar feat of blending the intimate feel of a jazz club at closing time which then spills out onto a pavement and into a park for a gaze with friends at the sky. I’m projecting, but you get the idea. These are songs of solace framed as stadium anthems.
And this is the thing with Shura. While her infrequent records and air of mystery suggest someone reticent to embrace the shiny pop world but her songs are now so good she may not have much choice in the matter.
The cover features Shura dressed in chainmail armour and this feels like a brave album in which outside and inside forces are taken on with these songs. And again: what a voice.
