Shura - forevher

The Guardian 80

(Secretly Canadian)

As with Shura’s debut, Nothing’s Real, her second album is front-loaded. After a brief intro come Forevher’s three best songs, followed by a slump it never quite recovers from. Side Effects is the clear highlight, a perfect collision of aesthetic and emotion. The English songwriter’s spacey, super-melodic, immaculately produced pop casts a wonderful spell when it works, particularly on lead single Religion (U Can Lay Your Hands on Me) or the swooning, filtered coda to The Stage, as endless as summer seems in early July.

It just feels that whenever the rhythms retreat, the songwriting behind these airy, 80s-Janet Jackson jams isn’t always strong enough to really connect. Shura’s sugary voice works best when the beat is insistent, pulling you towards the dancefloor in your head. Sometimes she sounds tamed, quiescent, processed and treated, her vocal lacking the personality to overcome the distancing effect of its digital rendering. That said, you can always hear how songs such as Forever or the endearingly batty Flyin’ (“a virgin had a baby, it’s crazy… I’m scared of flying/ I’m scared of dying”) could be remixed into magic, while the languorous closer Skyline, Be Mine is a beauty.

Pitchfork 78

The pop singer’s second album is looser, livelier and more ecstatic than her debut, detailing the headlong rush of falling in love.