Chinese poetry, chamber pop and heartbroken romanticism bloomed in ‘The Flower Song’ by LA singer-songwriter H.UI –

If any breakthrough singer-songwriter truly aurally embodies the coquette aesthetic, it is the LA evocateur H.UI. With her latest single, The Flower Song, the artist, pronounced “Who-Ey”, draws from Chinese poetry, philosophy, chamber pop and neo-classical piano to create a score so melancholically crystalline that it almost feels too fragile to listen to without tainting it.

The hauntingly ethereal vocal performance echoes the most vulnerable works of The Anchoress and Warpaint, while the neo-classical piano melody paints a vignette of heartbroken neo-Victorian romanticism. Listening to The Flower Song is a complete abstraction from modernity; its timelessness evokes something almost primal as you are forced to consider how pain has moved through generations into this one.

As with all of H.UI’s works, The Flower Song came into fruition through keying a piano melody, allowing the restrained orchestration to set the tone and deepen the atmosphere, which is later added to with layered harmonies and a minimalist approach to production. There is a diary-like intimacy in the way the song moves through memory, grief, identity and emotional residue, as though the past has been pressed between petals and kept somewhere sacred.

Created during recovery from a rare vocal injury, the wider H.UI project carries several versions of the same voice across time. That context gives The Flower Song an even stronger centre of gravity for fans of Mitski, Laufey, Sara Bareilles, Tom Odell and Ludovico Einaudi.

The Flower Song is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast