Chuu – XO, My Cyberlove (The First Album)

Nice chill title song. Just saw the MV. Though the ‘X’ stans is going to go instant hate over this one.

Context: A songwriter for the last album made a huge amount of noise that her song was Chuu’s “coming out” and now this new album MV is her having a male friend/relationship with an about to kiss scene. So they’ll either say it was forced by the company (since the songwriter didn’t return too) or random attack Chuu for baiting.

Edit: Not surprised at the downvotes. According to comments though people have already begun throwing shade.

A solid album. TT was not my favourite but I love Cocktail Dress, Limoncello, Heart Tea Bag and Loving You. These 4 are going in my playlist.

Overall rating – 8.1/10

i’m so excited about cocktail dress in particular, i LOVE the deeper end of her vocal range and that song really highlights it

to me this is easily her best album vocally, she sounds SOOO good. the runs, harmonies and adlibs in teeny tiny heart and hide & seek are so pleasant to listen to

It’s ‘Love Potion’ for me.

Probably the most tasteful way kpop ever touched this type of sounds. I usually don’t vibe with it, but on this song it’s great.

back with my album yaps again, my general thoughts after a few repeats:

album: Chuu’s most ambitious project yet that pays off well in its versatility, carrying a rather laid-back, brighter sound in a wide variety of genres and styles that are either synonymous with Chuu’s sonic identities or completely exploratory for her discography. Great, balanced production and an overall impressive showcase of Chuu’s versatility as a vocalist and artist, and does a decently good job at complementing the digital/cybercore concept surrounding this release as a whole. 8/10

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XO, My Cyberlove: A laid-back, dreamy and light concept with a lovely vibe! Chuu continues with another affectionately cute title track (with even more “pink glitter pen” lyrics), but in a brighter bedroom pop concept and feel-good, easy-going vibes all the way through. 8/10

Canary: A climactic, euphoric-sounding synth-pop track with a more emotionally charged vocal delivery, giving me mild callbacks to ‘Underwater’ in the more emphatic, powerfully moving vocal melodies that soar above the minimal instrumentation. It’s kind of giving Olivia Rodrigo vibes in all the right ways, especially in the echoey production and powerful choruses. 8/10

Cocktail Dress: A sonically driving and moving alt-pop arrangement underneath some really interesting lower-register melodies. The arrangement shines in this song for a lot of crafted melodies that Chuu delicately plays around with in her vocal delivery, sound design, and driving yet subdued, “bedroomy” pacing. 7/10

Limoncello: An incredibly groovy, smooth dancehall/moombahton track that stands out to me for the layered harmony decisions: the harmonies are impeccable in this track, and feel true to its influences. The producers especially cooked heavily on this one, with a lot of intricate details (good vocal mixing, an dreamier sound design) to not completely overpower the minimalist sound this style thrives on but complement the track’s overall energy. 7.5/10

Teeny Tiny Heart: A uniquely soulful, groovy track with a stylish and bouncy bassline + a Y2K pop twist on it. nice, feel-good, with even cheerier vibes and vocal delivery. Not my personal cup of tea, but I can imagine it’s going to hit with a lot of orbits (at least to my ears, it’s like a mix of ‘WOW’ and ‘Kiss Later’ by Yeojin). 6/10

Love Potion: A fast, bouncy dancehall/moombahton track, similar to Limoncello, but a bit more of a lean into moombahton. The clean, nicely-structured vocal lines heavily carries this track, with informed melodic decisions true to the genre, and some of the smoothest vocal runs/riffs in the entire album. 7/10

Heart Tea Bag: A laid-back, bedroom R&B track that really leans heavily into the digital or “cybercore” elements behind the album’s concept more than any other song on the album. The softer, synth-driven R&B vocal melodies are nicely chilled out, and the light, pushed-back harmonies add to the dreaminess of the track. I personally LOVE the sound design and production on this one; the atmosphere-building and controlled, dreamy vibe in all parts of the production is one of those “soundscape” songs that does well in building a sonic environment around the listener, one that, in this case, i enjoyed heavily. (it kinda gives me callbacks to NIKI’s older music, if anyone else gets that reference here) 8.5/10

Hide & Seek: That upbeat, energetic bubblegum pop that complements Chuu’s image, and leaning a bit more into a summery, tropical pop sound. It gives me bright 3rd gen vibes, with a bit more upbeat swagger and tropical pop influences. I can definitely imagine this song hitting in the summer. 7/10

Loving You!: Okay, I LOVE this digicore vibe, and big Strawberry Rush fans (like me) will likely enjoy this one. An energetic balance between energetic hyperpop rhythms in the verses, bouncy Jersey Club rhythms in the pre-choruses, and anthemic/stadium pop rhythms in the choruses, all underneath an equally-as-interesting blend of vocal deliveries by Chuu makes this song not only incredibly interesting, but also creates such a fun yet sweet song. The energetic verses stand out for their unapologetically driving force, while the sweet, borderline-angelic choruses feel JUST that much sweeter because of the driving verses preceding it. My personal favorite on this album. 9/10