Album Review: Aseurai 아스라이

I’ll be honest, I’ve never dived into dream pop music before. I barely heard of it as a genre until a serendipitous haze had me listen to Phoebe Rings that opened a curious door. If you haven’t heard of city pop or dream pop, a good place to start would be Phoebe Rings’s debut album called Aseurai 아스라이. At first listen, I felt the earnestness of autobiographical songwriting. What was meant to be a solo project by Crystal Choi became a band of magic with additionally Simeon Kavanagh-Vincent, Alex Freer and Benjamin Locke. It started in 2023 when the band wrote, produced, and engineered the album across multiple studios and within the homes of the different band members. They’ve since opened for likes of Arlo Parks and The Beths and played in the Fringe Festival (Outsider Sounds Festival) 2020, Nestfest 2020, Festival of Lights 2024, and Future Future Festival 2024. The momentum is infectious, with the band making ‘Best New Zealand Music of the Week,’ round-ups on The Rolling Stone, and music featured in Kid Sister (TVNZ+) and White Fever (ABC, AU).

The first title track Aseurai starts gently with breathy vocals from Choi and then gradually brings in the sounds of a synthesizer. Choi has said it’s curated by the feeling of yearning for people she couldn’t see anymore. She was also inspired by a 90’s Korean pop band, Choi discovered. And then I listen to Not A Necessity next. This one reminds me the most of Beach House, with the way they use synthesizers. Here is where you hear Choi expressing the fabrics of growing up in a Korean-speaking home in Tamaki Makaurau on the North Shore. Choi reflects on the nuanced layers growing up between cultural fabrics as a Korean New Zealander.

Mandarin Tree is the sound of walking to work, a breath in the sunlight on Sunday. This one shows their talent the most I believe because of the band’s ability to unify drums and guitar. This flows nicely into the next song Get Up which pays tribute to old-school disco tracks. A significant note is Locke expresses this song is about struggling with mental health and shown in a Matrix-inspired driven mantra: “Just get up / Just get up.” I love that we have gentle vocals by Locke as it’s more organic and it shows how powerful it is when a band can change the vocalist.

Playground Song is romantic in the sense of romanticising your life. This one emphasises the band’s production style. Lyrically it’s a sense of melancholy, a nostalgic daydream, and introspection on your life. We roll into Fading Star with a buzzing feeling because we get a touch of rock guitar and jazz style. It’s a quirky ballad that shows the band utilises guitars just as much as the synthesisers. This is also recognised within Static which to me sounds the most like a Clairo song. The way the vocals sync with each instrument in a chemical fusion feels like a position being made. Followed by Drifting, which is a lead single by Kavanagh-Vincent that explores what an unrequited celestial love song is. The base guitar ricochets off the playful synths, which creates a dome of energy. The band create a golden sunset ending to the album with Blue Butterfly and Goodnight. Each note is pulled when being played on the synthesiser and sounds like a lullaby.

As a whole, Aseurai 아스라이 is a beautiful album that dives into a world of optimism and exploration of holding on and letting go. This is the strongest idea threaded throughout the album, in my opinion. You can hear the enchanting design that will not stop these guys from producing more music..