Billie Eilish, Phoebe Bridgers, Olivia Rodrigo. All Los Angeles alt-pop icons who represent an endless well of talent in the West Coast metropolis.
Hana Vu is yet another export from the Golden State, back with her second full-length album '
Romanticism'.
Three years since dark and expansive debut '
Public Storage', Hana Vu has taken a step into the light, creating a record that is more coherent in terms of song ideas and content, although it's not a total departure from her first album. Opener '
Look Alive' has the same menacing, cinematic feel as earlier songs like power-puncher '
Anything Striking', with '
Find Me Under Wilted Trees', '
I Draw a Heart', and '
Love' all featuring the vocal layering and DIY college rock, guitar that made her entry into the indie scene so exciting.
Outside of this, it definitely feels like a record on the pop-ier side of indie-pop. Vu channels her fellow LA cohort Olivia Rodrigo on '
How it Goes', while '
Airplane' and '
Play' see her experiment more with drum samplers and digital beats. Her vocal is still the star of the show, though, with the whole LP feeling like a real exorcism of some romantic demons, most clearly in pop-punk-esque break-up anthem '22'.
