Parking Lot by hana vu

A postscript to her 2021 Public Storage album, Hana Vu's Parking Lot EP surfaces two new songs alongside four album tracks recorded live. The release also looks ahead to live shows in 2022, Vu's first chance to perform the material from her full-length Ghostly debut, acclaimed by the likes of NME, NPR, and The New Yorker. The latter describes the Los Angeles-based artist as possessing "an improbably deep repertoire, having been born to an era of indie artists who graduated swiftly from lock-and-key diaries to Bandcamp pages."

The two new singles encompass the range of Vu's pop songcraft. "Parking Lot" chugs at full speed; motorik bass and drum patterns collide with buzzing guitar and urgent lines of introspection. She pins the rugged indie rock sound to her teenage years, playing parking lot and backyard shows. "I was just reflecting on how my perspective on music, performance, existence has changed since then and how differently I go about those things now," says Vu.

In contrast, the bittersweet "Mr Lonely" unravels gently across strums and strings. Calling it a response of sorts to Bobby Vinton's 1962 ballad of a homesick soldier, Vu explains, "I thought that the sentiments of the original song were almost pathetic when put into today's context." While this correspondence back to Mr. Lonely delivers a real-talk refute of his starry-eyed love, Vu's character serves it with compassion. "Quit your longing / it's alright," she sings, ultimately suggesting that "it's better to be alone."

The EP's four live versions — performed with co-producer Jackson Phillips (Day Wave), Henry Moser (Henry Nowhere), Nick de Ryss, and Mike Parvizi — hint at how the arrangements of Public Storage translate on stage. "It feels good to breathe some extra life into the record," Vu adds. "It was very daunting to try and make the live versions work because the production of Public Storage was created in lockdown, so I wasn't thinking much about the live aspects. But I welcome all challenges as that is the richness of life."

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