Of all the things to love about this track, the thing I love most about Jacqui Sui’s new single “Angel” is the way she has managed to make you feel both heavy and weightless, simultaneously.
Light, airy vocals mix with the dark undertones brought on by the combination of a soothing rhythm, synths, and a heavier guitar tone transport you out of the present, and into a dreamworld of her desires. Higher and higher we feel through the bridge until the final chorus begins the decent back into reality. Lyrically, she evokes a certain sadness that, paired the addition of reverb in her vocal mix, adds to the juxtaposition of feeling high and low, all at once. If I close my eyes, I can picture an illuminated figure slowly sinking in a body of dark water, reaching out to someone that isn’t quite there, but one day will be.
“This song is the bittersweet feeling of meeting someone you aren’t ready to give yourself to, and revelling in the momentary romance.”
Jacqui Siu is a singer songwriter from New Zealand, based in London. Her classical and jazz piano background turned her to creating alternative pop R&B tracks with raw vocals and downtempo instrumentals. Jacqui Siu’s debut EP "Danger", with lead single "Fluorescent Lovers", was self-released in 2017 and has seen over 1M streams worldwide, featuring on editorial playlists such as New Music Friday AU/NZ, Spotify Weekly Buzz US.
She has since released "Headlock", produced in Los Angeles by Roc Nation’s John Ho (Mark Ronson, Jaden Smith), with an accompanying avant-garde music video shot and directed by London-based filmmaker, Kassandra Powell. A year later she returns with "shoulda gone home" produced by Manny Park (Travis Scott, Big Sean) of Germano Studios, New York, featuring Grammy Award Winning guitarist, Keith Askey.
Jacqui Siu is soon to release a new single, reuniting with kiwi producer, Rory Noble (Kanye West, DJ Mustard, Tinashe) of her 2017 EP, and collaborating with Britain’s Jon Kelly (Duffy, Kate Bush, Paul McCartney) and Emre Ramazanoglu (AlunaGeorge, Paloma Faith, Nilüfer Yanya).
Review by Sydney Carr
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