mui zyu - nothing or something to die for (2024) [Hi-Res]

Like contemporaries Hana Vu and Mitski, mui zyu—née Eva Liu, who made a splashy debut in 2023 with Rotten Bun for an Eggless Century—explores the contrast of sublime beauty and dread. Her soft, breathy voice is built for lullabies. But she loves to pair it with discordance, in both her words and music. "Playing with chords that aren't necessarily part of the same key, things that sound unsettling but there's a sweet undertone …," Liu, who was born in Northern Ireland to parents originally from Hong Kong, has said of her vision. "I think I like a listener to be a bit confused and a bit unsettled." On "the mould," her calm, sweet voice floats over the chaos of what sounds like a jug band of a giant rubber band, 8-bit video games and grandma doorbell chimes. She says the song is about being uncomfortably "squeezed into a mould that doesn't fit snuggly," even though it's hard to imagine her ever fitting one. Ballad "everything to die for" is lovely but, every once in a while, Liu purposely hits a note that's just the tiniest bit off, like a doll from the island of misfit toys. "sparky," meanwhile, draws inspiration from the opening scene of the movie Blue Velvet—when, she's said, a dog named Sparky "is the perfect image of joyfulness [while] biting water from a hose in front of their dead owner." A collaboration with innocent-sounding Emma Lee Moss, who was formerly known as Emmy the Great and now records as lei, e, the song is dreamy but covered in fuzz. "donna like parasites" ignites with melting-laser noises, until fairy-tale strings battle and, eventually, overtake the hard-edged electro sounds. "speak up, sponge" is doom-tastic, with Liu's vocals and the glistening strings manipulated so the song sounds like it's on sun-warped vinyl that can't maintain its RPM. Winsome "cool as a cucumber" initially presents as the most conventional track of the bunch, until Liu's vocal track contorts and it all ends like a swarm of mad bees. Miss Grit duets on the radiantly pulsing, briefly glitching "please be ok." Bedroom-pop darling Pickle Darling, with cavern-like effect deepening his vocals, shows up for "in the dot," which combines quivering silent-movie strings and an almost industrial rhythm. And Liu offers life advice on "the rules of what an earthling can be," which is about aliens offering the choice of a better, yet unknown universe or the continued cruelties of Earth: "Be not too loud, not too soft, not too sweet … Don't let them tell you what an earthling can be."



Tracklist:
1.01 - mui zyu - satan marriage (1:16)
1.02 - mui zyu - the mould (2:22)
1.03 - mui zyu - everything to die for (3:11)
1.04 - mui zyu - donna like parasites (4:00)
1.05 - mui zyu - the rules of what an earthling can be (3:25)
1.06 - mui zyu - please be ok (3:58)
1.07 - mui zyu - telephone congee i (0:33)
1.08 - mui zyu - speak up, sponge (3:17)
1.09 - mui zyu - what’s the password baby bird? (3:30)
1.10 - mui zyu - hopefulness, hopefulness (4:01)
1.11 - mui zyu - telephone congee ii (0:31)
1.12 - mui zyu - sparky (2:54)
1.13 - mui zyu - in the dot (2:23)
1.14 - mui zyu - cool as a cucumber (3:29)
1.15 - mui zyu - 扮豬食老虎 (3:08)