When
Shura released her breakthrough track "Touch" in 2014, fans of her gauzy update of '80s pop and R&B immediately wanted more. Though 2015's White Light EP offered some tantalizing new songs,
Shura kept listeners waiting another year for her first full-length. Fortunately, the results were worth it:
Nothing's Real boasts richer songwriting and wider-ranging sounds than might have been expected. Where her earlier work was so atmospheric it threatened to float away, on
Nothing's Real she grounds her fantasies with sounds that are often sleeker than those of her influences and contemporaries. Her updates on the past sound fresher than ever, whether she's borrowing from
Madonna and
Kylie in their respective primes on the glittery title track, or channeling some of
Laura Branigan's chugging drama on "Make It Up." Similarly,
Shura imbues her romantic daydreams with just enough truth to make them sting a little. "I'd rather lose it all for you/Than regret things I didn't do," she sings on "Tongue Tied," and it feels like a mission statement for the rest of the album (as well as anyone else who's head over heels). "What's It Gonna Be?" fizzes like first love even though
Shura braces herself for the worst on the hook: "If you're gonna let me down/Let me down slow." And when she sings "You're just a fiction/Someone that I made up" on "What Happened to Us?", a heart playing tricks on itself has rarely sounded so joyous. The previously released songs serve as reminders why
Nothing's Real was so anticipated. "Touch" and "2Shy" remain brilliant, soft-focus pop songs about love dreams so delicate that singing about them too loudly could destroy them, while "Indecision" and the expansive finale "White Light" bridge these tracks with the rest of the album. As ephemeral and powerful as a crush,
Nothing's Real marks
Shura as the kind of smart pop star the 2010s need. ~ Heather Phares