lu202

hello perfect people!

it feels so lovely to be able to have somewhere i am able to (badly) articulate my thoughts and indulge in myself, so what better way to kick this off than a track by track of the results of my biggest self-indulgence of the past year right?

this is only going to be part 1 as i feel i'll have a fair bit to say, so let's split the tracks down the middle and do 4 at a time :)

TRACK 1: So Lonely

This was not the first or second pick for the intro to the album I'll admit. The first one existed before most of the other songs on the album, and was comprised of a monologue from Serial Experiments Lain and strings sampled from the Saw soundtrack. I felt it was a little too on the nose for what I was trying to convey with the themes of webspace and isolation throughout, but now the albums out I do sometimes wonder if it would've been a better pick lol. The second version is technically the same song as the one released, but is the original restored version of it. It's actually a full 1 minute 30 rap song with 2 verses over a sort of ambient boom bap beat (the same present in the studio version, just higher and less distorted). I didn't really feel like starting an album that is predominantly singing with a full rap song was the best choice, but adored the beat enough to want to savour it. I've always loved Chopped n Screwed style music and the culture around it, and thought it would be a really interesting experiment to emulate that style on one of my own songs. I actually think that it ended up turning out really cool, I think having this as the intro really cements the place of songs like Seethrough and Plug Me In amidst the more pop tones of Phoenix and HITSOAG. Maybe one day I will release the restored version of it, but it won't be with any major promotion.

TRACK 2: ily2

ily2 was not the first song made for Perfect Lu (although it is the first song made for it that actually made it on the album) but it is absolutely the song that solidified that this was a project I wanted to flesh out fully. At the end of the Summer of 2023, I had the opportunity to work on my good friend Kaeli-i's album "Scheda Madre", mixing the entire album and producing a few songs throughout (Bye being the notable production of mine). Whilst working on one of the songs that unfortunately didn't make it onto the album titled (WIP) "80s Kaeli", I became captivated by an extremely catchy melody in a one off adlib towards the end of the song. I continued working on it, but couldn't get it out of my head. I decided that I would export that little vocal riff to a new Ableton project and just have a quick play around and see what came to mind. I made most of the ily2 beat in the next 20 minutes. This song was the one that made me realise I wanted to take Perfect Lu in a much more diverse direction than strictly a trip-hop inspired album, and my growing nostalgia for the era of Cloud Rap at the time too began to influence Perfect Lu to have some more modern leaning conventions. ily2 since its initial inception was just undoubtedly going to be one of the singles for me that, if I ever had/have a chance to be a "one hit wonder" before, it would be for this song. The beat is admittedly quite simple, relying mostly on it's percussive rhythm and the general "vibe". I feel as though my production often leans minimal and I don't really have a problem with that at all, but for ily2 specifically I wanted to transition to a different palette of sounds for the second verse to relieve the listeners ears of a somewhat monotonous sound. I think ily2 probably encapsulates the general sound of Perfect Lu the best on the whole album, it has elements of both the modern and nostalgic feel laced throughout the other songs and ties it all up in a confectionary sweet hook. I am immensely proud of this song.

TRACK 3: Plug Me In

At this point I'm pretty comfortably into my 20s, and yet the idea of writing a "sex song" still makes me very uncomfortable. Despite the irony that my vocal delivery absolutely leans into sultry, intimate whispers actually tackling the subject of sex and physical intimacy still feels a bit awkward to me. Despite that, lu202 as an entire concept and the embodiment of it on this project isn't particularly shy about longing for intimacy and touch, but being able to detach myself from having to actually think about my own intimacy for metaphor instead was nice for me lol. This song starts with a sample of Chii from Chobits reading an extract from "A City With No People". Chobits as an entire concept with the question of what quantifies humanity and the ability to be compassionate is a theme that I wanted to explore subtly throughout Perfect Lus' lyrical content, so including a sample from it was a nod to the deeper themes of the album for anybody in the know. I also just really love Chobits, huge guilty pleasure anime of mine (shoutout to Rico Nasty for putting me on). The beat to this song is relatively straight forward, being a 202 take on a contemporary R&B offer. The piano chords that power through everything else really make the song for me, and I feel as though it is a highlight for my vocal melody craft also. I'm really proud of the second verse! I would love to incorporate more R&B elements into the 202 atmosphere, but unfortunately with it comes the pressure to really sing. I am not sure if I am qualified to do that, but this song is a real vocal moment for me that I am satisfied with. Also, the other more blatant sample was a total accident. I immediately knew it was from something but did have to look it up. I felt as though the song fit into the time-frame and general concept well enough, so left my accidental thievery in. Fergie did it better.

Track 4: Risk It All