The lyricism of Public Storage is the album’s greatest strength as if self-aware, the instrumentation is mostly stripped-back, allowing the words she sings, and the striking voice she sings them in, to take the centre-stage they deserve.

“Can you make me anybody else?” she pleads on the final track, Maker-but as she spent the last eleven songs proving, she doesn’t need the help: she’s a force to be reckoned with as she is. Proving oneself and finding one’s place are the album’s most significant themes, whether she’s dreaming of a home as in Aubade (“ When I close my eyes / I have a new place”), running away from it as in Heaven (“ Heaven, heaven / Never going home, no”), or trying to make it as in My House ( “Oh, make my house a home / Or give me hands to hold”). “ Here’s my receipt, here’s all my records / I’ll show you everything that I have to prove,” Vu sings on the title track, Public Storage-and then spends the rest of the album doing just that. Bedroom pop has never sounded so soulful-and while the ‘bedroom’ part can hardly be used to describe the stellar production quality across the twelve tracks, it’s a perfect descriptor for just how personal this album is lyrically. Public Storage seems to veer away from the more upbeat, experimental undertones and grainy, lo-fi processing of the latter, though one thing that hasn’t changed is the sheer power of Vu’s low, contralto voice, which speaks-or sings-to a musical maturity beyond her years. Public Storage brings forward the 21-year-old’s signature sound from her two previous EPs, 2017’s How Many Times Have You Driven By and 2019’s Nicole Kidman / Anne Hathaway, though with a markedly more consistent sound across the album. It’s rare to see an artist so young with such a strong grasp on her personal style. Now the mouth is open, allowing us an intimate look into the human body-just as the album itself does sonically, giving us an unflinching portrait of Vu as both an artist and a person. The cover art of Los Angeles-based artist Hana Vu’s newest album, Public Storage, follows the pattern of the three singles released prior to it- Maker, Keeper, and Everybody’s Birthday, which featured highly-saturated, gritty images of body parts, from an eye, to a hand, to a closed set of teeth. Her stellar signature sound is one thing she shows no signs of losing. Hana Vu’s third album, Public Storage, is a powerful meditation on the self, change and loss.

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