Track Reviews//Henry - Untitled Love Song
Single
(Monster Entertainment Group, 9th May 2019)
If
2019 holds but one promise of pure joy, and it looks these days like that may prove
to be the case, it will surely be Henry
Lau’s comeback; heralded recently by the release of Untitled Love
Song. A typically frank
and soulful confession, rendered in sugar and moulded into the simple pop theatrics
of Randy Newman or Harry Nilsson – this swooning K-pop
ballad shows a maturity in the young maestro.
My first introduction to these irresistible jams was with
2016’s Runnin’ – a pristine bop of
near-perfect production and glistening disco dreaminess
– and if that beautiful
single was Henry immersed in the global explosion of K-pop that has delivered
us the monstrous BTS revolution then Untitled Love Song is him coming
up to breathe the air in his own right.
Still possessing an uncanny and instinctive feel
for all those pop moments half-remembered from your mum’s cassette tape
collection; the 29 year
old has found a more stripped back groove that suits the earnest, spotless
performances. Like a good deal of Korean musicians he sprinkles in swoops and crescendos of soul and
pop with dashes of English romcom-speak – “girl,
you keep driving me crazy/I can’t believe I’m in love”, a technique
employed by a lot of successful artists to penetrate the UK’s monoglot fog – Raghu Dixit and Melody Gardot to name but a couple.
Doubling
up as a veteran with impeccable musical credentials and an ideal introduction
to the world of blissed-out, industrial sincerity that is C, J and K pop; be good
to your friends this month, introduce them to Henry.
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