Hopefully you were paying attention when Hana Vu roared onto the scene with 2018’s How Many Times Have You Driven By EP on Luminelle Recordings. Songs like “Shallow” showed not only a budding songwriter at 18, but a vocal force who could channel longing and absurdities through a lingering contralto. Since then, Vu has signed with Ghostly and has been recording her upcoming album in her home city of Los Angeles, with co-producer Jackson Phillips of Day Wave.
Public Storage comes out on November 5th via Ghostly and the last of four singles, “Gutter,” is out today, as is an instantly enveloping live performance video. Vu’s soaring vocals leave a lasting mark on the grunge-inflected tune with Phillips playing a gazy guitar hook. There’s just something so fierce about Vu’s delivery that calls to mind recent breakthrough acts like Snail Mail or Soccer Mommy, but with the speakers turned up an extra notch.
When speaking of the album, Vu said in a statement, “I am not religious, but when writing these songs I imagined a sort of desolate character crying out to an ultimately punitive force for something more.” That plea is certainly palpable from the singer on “Gutter” and has been a hallmark of her work since that first EP.
Find the studio and live versions of “Gutter” above and check out the album art and tracklist for Public Storage below.
1. “April Fool”
2. “Public Storage”
3. “Aubade”
4. “Heaven”
5. “Keeper”
6. “Gutter”
7. “My House”
8. “World’s Worst”
9. “Anything Striking”
10. “Everybody’s Birthday”
11. “I Got”
12. “Maker”
Public Storage is out 11/5 via Ghostly. Pre-order it here.