Today, Montreal’s Hua Li 化力 dropped the Yellow Crane EP via Next Door Records.
The EP is a perfect blend of dreamy R&B and hip-hop with some great storytelling about love and life.
Then ends off a surprising dreamy electro-dance Chinese cover song.
It is a great follow-up/companion to Dynasty.
Also today, Hua Li dropped the music video for “Four More Days” which is a quarantine love song.
Directed by Steve Deku with art direction by Alba Daza, the video portrays the physical barriers to long-distance love in the time of COVID-19.
About the EP:
The EP is named after Wuhan’s famous Yellow Crane Tower which inspired many notable ancient poets including Cui Hao and Li Bai. Hua Li’s grandfather, Wang Yun Peng, was a literary scholar who helped guide the restoration of Yellow Crane Tower after the close of the Cultural Revolution
The opening track, “Water”, takes on the city of Wuhan, describing her powerful history, the equally fiery climate and temperament of her citizens and her three boroughs, Wuchang, Hankao and Hanyang, at the Yangtze River. Hua Li’s passionate and unrelenting verses give way to lush choruses weaving together ancient Chinese symbolism with the modern-day political plight of Asian Americans. “Dream Narratives” reflects on friendship spanning decades. The backbones of the track were written many years ago in Wuhan while Hua Li visited her maternal grandmother. Considered the birthplace of Chinese punk, Wuhan is home to a thriving indie rock scene, a sound that Hua Li explores with her first release in her mother tongue of Mandarin which is a cover of Chinese Football’s “Electronic Girl”.
Yellow Crane EP gets:
/10.
Hua Li 化力 – Yellow Crane EP [Streaming]
