Throwback Review: Nothing's Real by Shura (2016)

   British Singer-Songwriter Shura has been on my rotation quite heavily these past few weeks so I thought I would dive into the depths of her first record Nothing’s Real and provide some insight into why this album is a gleaming dose of beautiful, synthed-up dream pop. Shura’s sound on here carves deep into a synthetic 80s groove with splattering's of enough funky elements to give this thing a sense of depth and completeness not found on many of her contemporaries’ works. If her second record forevher was a delve into the exalted feminine mystique, then this first album is The autobiography of her love life and dealing with the weight of the world on her shoulders. Nothing’s Real is a sonic journey through the stars yearning to make sense of the world around her as she moves forward in life. The sounds are serene and the vocals are ever-intoxicating, leaving us with a gorgeous LP of worldly desires, emotions and the notion of our future either halting, or leaping out before us, ultimately guided by friends and loved ones.

    Shura presents Nothing’s Real as an odyssey into her head, as well as one into the outside world. The journey for her began back in 2014 when her song “Touch,” a bouncy synth-filled, melodically slow, piano driven piece soared in popularity and had many major labels desiring to ink her name to a contract. This newfound fame caused Shura to suffer a panic attack and as lyrics in the title track detail, she was tested with an EKG in the emergency room and “Saw her heart connected to a TV screen.” This was an epiphanous moment for Shura and this experience caused her to start questioning her feelings, her life and everything in between. This traumatic event sees a shift in her focus because this record plays heavily on a reversion back to her adolescence and before her success. These experiences paint a gorgeous, yet anxious glimpse of her feelings and what she desires. Just by understanding the cover art of this record we get the sense that her world is evanescently imploding, as visualized through the rays of light illuminating her mind, that show planets dying and even a part of her fading into a black and white void of nothingness, realizing that life and love may no longer be possible.

    The themes of this record begin in Shura’s past, so the nostalgic feelings she presents in her production and vocal melodies are immediately apparent. The first song “(I)” is set up with pure sonic hazes that resonate within Shura and those listening, resulting in a sort of mutual exchange of pertinent thoughts, more so setting the scene for the rest of the record. The title song "Nothing's Real" is the lens through which to view this album, as the funky bassline sounds punchy as hell, transformed further by the vibrating reverb layered on each successive hit of the crispy percussion. Shura mentions multiple times how she is "A dead girl walking," insinuating the concurrent theme of how she can possibly belong in a world she won't even trust with her own emotions. The angelic string transitions that lead into the chorus are extremely vibrant and work perfectly in showing her ability to fashion different sonic productional elements, lending themselves to the quirky, space ship laser samples and the zoned out whirring synths in the background, complimenting all other elements continuously as the track progresses. Memories of the past and impossible love set up the track “What’s it gonna be?” a vivacious piece of synth pop that is heavily characterized by the rapidly decaying guitar chords, as well as some ecstatic chiming synths that carry the electric and up-tempo hook. The song is about finding a connection with someone but ultimately realizing that it won't work. This is clearly significant in regards to the concept of this record and shows Shura reaching into her life for things that truly make her question her existence. Interestingly enough the next track “Touch,” arguably the most standout track to casual listeners, is a gorgeous and moody ballad of impossible reconnection with lost relationships. The production on this cut draws you in thanks to the continuous, tuneful and depth-filled synth notes that ring in throughout. This track isn't a resolution to “What’s It Gonna Be?” but I thought the notion was an interesting one because of the apparent switch from a lost relationship in “What’s it gonna be?,” to meeting someone from your past again on “Touch”, as detailed in Shura’s lyrics “I want to touch you but I’m too late, I want to touch you but there’s history, I can’t believe that’s it been three years, Now when I see you it’s so bittersweet.”

    Nothing’s Real uses contrast to elevate and highlight the ever-present emotional tensions laced throughout the album, as shown on the track “Indecision.” The colorful and bouncy synths produce joyous aspirations of hope and a belief in love, while the lyrics point in the opposite direction and detail the sense of lost feelings still felt even though this relationship is impossible according to Shura. Not lost within the vibrancy of this song are the delicate, yet ringing piano chords that play extremely well off of the snappy percussion which is graced with an interesting synthetic snare that, for lack of a better description, sounds like a warp drive from cult classic space Sci Fi’s. The track “What Happened to Us?” again delves into this beautiful contrasting element, with the highly structured up-tempo drum loop rushing along to the rhythm of the very prominent bass line, however we see Shura reminiscing about two people not ready to love each other, mainly attributed to Shura's inability to form a connection thanks to immaturity and insecurity. This song might be the most derivative in terms of structure and the tempo created by the percussion, but once the hook hits, it's a bombardment of perfectly executed instrumentation; the serene synths rising up and down like the ocean’s tide, the colorful guitar riffs and, just at the repeat of every lyrical passage in the hook, we are graced with these starry keys that put the gorgeous cherry right on top.

    Standout moments, and vitally important ones at that on this record are everywhere but Shura’s cut “Make it Up” in all necessity is the most complete, bearing a certain thematic weight, especially knowing the simple yet heartbreaking story of it. Shura stated on Twitter in a now deleted tweet that this gorgeous piece details the immediate journey home on the London Underground after the dejection and loss after her breakup to her girlfriend at the time. Starting slow during the intro with dreamy synth notes, Shura slowly begins this tale of “One girl on the last train," she sings. After her thoughts begin to form and she goes into the first verse, we are hit with a split second of instrumental silence until the perfectionate and tuneful drums sound off in an intoxicating kick-snare combo. The little guitar chords that riff in unique patterns and compositions throughout are like a sprinkling of light unto darkness, synergizing perfectly with the underlying bassline to deliver one of her most refined and groovy songs to date. Every element, the lyrics to the synths and the perfect production all harmonize to create a truly beautiful piece of music. The most important track on this thing however must be the track “White Light.” If you are not informed about Shura’s personality at all, then you wouldn’t know that this track was inspired by her love of media and video games, specifically the Sci-Fi games Mass Effect and The Last of Us, as detailed in her interview with The Line of Best Fit. While at first what may seem a weird inspiration for a track, Shura effortlessly blends her colorful sounds and touching vocal melodies into a collage of broken hearts and emotional turmoil. The pure serenity of the diving sounds and luscious chord loops sound like the instrumentation to a triple-A video game title as she suggested, uplifting Shura's lyrics with masterful precision. Significant attention is shown on the slow and melodious backend of the track as she sounds almost hopeful, yet still knowing the own impossibility of this deceitful notion. Shura's flawed healing and reconnection on the final lyrics are devastating yet beautiful, as she serenades listeners with the words of "Take me back home like you never did, Teach me right from wrong like you never did, and we will be friends like we never were."

    Nothing's Real concludes with an amalgamating remix of synths, samples and lyrics drawn from a number of songs throughout the entire record onto the closer of "The Space Tapes." A perfect end to a record of untrustworthy feelings, Shura navigates through the sonic universe of this track with the coruscating qualities of everything that came before this one cut, slowly drowning out the piece until she continuously utters the word "Over" again and again, as if to signal the end of this journey with one last question left to be answered: Has she found her footing in the world or is she still unsure of herself in a universe that she has tried so desperately to understand? Shura may not have all the answers and rightfully so, as it is ultimately up to our own divination to help decipher her reasoning. Nothing's Real is a cosmic voyage through everything life threw at Shura and while its conclusion is just as much of a mystery as the journey was, Shura seems to have found herself a brighter future through the fantastic usage of funky synth-pop to guide our minds and her own towards a future of her own making, leaving us with one of the strongest entries in this euphoric and moody genre, and one we can continue to ponder over endlessly.

Score: 9/10