IU – CHAT-SHIRE

Tracklist:

1. New Shoes
2. Zezé
3. Twenty-three
4. The Shower
5. Red Queen
6. Knee
7. Glasses



After a much-lauded performance in 'Producers,' IU is back with her new album 'Chat-Shire.' This album contains a couple things that make it great right off the bat: One is that she wrote the lyrics herself (and actually produced "The Shower"); the second is the EP contains the song she sang in 'Producers,' "Twenty-three." Don't look for her on TV, though, she's bringing her show to the fans on tour.

"New Shoes" - a swingy jazz composition buoyed by IU's sweet voice. It's got a bouncy trot-like rhythm during the main verses, and the chorus has a nice, breathy end to it. The song's about more than just a new pair of shoes. She references red shoes (of course), but also Dorothy. It's about the exuberance, that spring in your step that carries you home.



"Zezé" - It starts out easy enough, with a pounding beat and a bouncy, jazzy style, but she practically spits the chorus in defiance. I love the way this song is put together, each part is definitely its own, but it flows together so well. The inspiration for the song is the book 'My Sweet Orange Tree', about a boy who's gentle one moment, and the next moment he's malicious. "I become the Minguinho (tree) and the song contains my message for Zezé," she says of the song. She wrote the lyrics to be deliberately open to interpretation.

"Twenty-three" - The standout song on the album, definitely jazzy, and high energy. You can hear a lot of Cindy in here, a bit of rebellion the way it's sung. It's inspired by the Cheshire Cat from 'Alice in Wonderland'. When Alice asks the cat for directions, he gives her a vague answer. It's about growing up and not knowing what you want to do.



"The Shower" - A soothing, low-tempo track, with a quiet guitar to back our angel-voiced singer. There's a harmonica that also does some time here as well, adding a bit of hope to the tone. IU gives her voice an ethereal quality, which helps with the reflective, pensive tone that this song requires. It ends with the very same line it begins with, and she's asking a lover what was important to them while standing in the rain.

"Red Queen" - With this song, IU picks up the pace again, starting out with a peppy drum track and launching straight into the song. Rapper Zion.T is on this track, and I had my reservations, initially -- it's just not that kind of song. But he doesn't rap so much as sing, and the combination works. She drew inspiration from a picture drawn by f(x)'s Sulli: the Red Queen in 'Through the Looking Glass.' She tried to make the Queen a sympathetic character. Did it work? I'll leave that for you to decide.  

"Knee" - Another reflective song, with some lovely emotional delivery. A slow piano, and a layered chorus help give it a very lush feeling. The nice thing is that it's never over the top -- it works perfectly with IU's voice, even when a violin comes in to keep us company. A reworked pre-release track, this song was written in a moment of self-doubt during a sleepless night, and she missed being able to rest her head in grandma's lap and enjoy some worry-free rest.

"Glasses" - A quiet song, that has a bit of swing and a bit of sass. There's a wonderful, epic surprise waiting for us when it hits the chorus: one of the best transitions to a time change I've heard.  Mid-tempo, soothing, yet original, this is a great way to finish an album like this. It's a song about seeing things the right way.



One of the thing I like about IU is each album has some musical genre that she sticks to throughout. There's no odd-man-out dance track in the middle of a bunch of retro-style ballads, and this holds true here. It's an extremely balanced album, in fact. There are sassy, body-moving tracks, and then slower, emotionally-moving ones as well. The jazz style is a departure from her last album, and she more than does it justice. She's got a great, breathy vocal style; it's very soothing and so when there's a bit of sarcasm or sass in a song it's a little surprising but not jarring. Apparently, she had a lot to say, and writing these lyrics were intensely personal -- and sometimes painful -- for her. I hope she exorcised her demons as much as we enjoy hearing her do so.   

MV REVIEW

Watch IU as she trips through a bizarre wonderland in her newest MV!

People that all of a sudden become objects, fantastic animations, windows that lead into cupboards, and entirely strange rooms and locales. What does it all mean? Well, I'm sure there's a clue in the Lewis Carroll book that inspired the song, but that may be one more thing that IU wanted left open.

The dancing in here is pretty well done. We get to see just enough of it, and she and her dancers kill it. It's full of gestures, footwork, and using the parts of the body to great effect.



The wardrobe in here is standard. The clothing is fairly appropriate throughout. It's a halfway daring costume she's got on during the dance sequences, but no more revealing than we've seen before.

Overall, the MV is really fun to watch. You never quite know what's going to happen next, and that goes right along with the playful, devil-may-care delivery. The animations are funny and delightful, and sometimes downright menacing. I think it is a great companion to 'Alice Through the Looking Glass,' and equally as strange.   

SEE ALSO: IU reveals why she stopped checking social media messages