Love is connection, an emotional thread that winds it's way through ones soul, piercing it to loop back to finish the stitch. Su Lee embodies this connection through songs that spell out sadness, the little crisis of our lives that are deemed too complicated for that flat, polished to the point it loses it's humanity, genre known as popular music. Sitting side by side next to her, Lady Gaga & Tyler Swift look grim as Su Lee's lyrical pose sustains details that are normally blasted away in fear of leaving some valuable demographic feeling alienated, instead giving the listener a quiet sense of appreciation and love using vocals, composition, and writing that through it's unabashed pride in being human, succeeds where no mammoth corporate studio dares to tread.
Due to this connection, the intent behind her music shines behind a void of vacant, empty popular songs for the simplest yet most decried of reasons: she cares about the listener. Every song turns and twists around the themes she wraps her music in, healing, venting, expression, and simply of being a creature that is capable of being aware of and questioning their existence. Such an awareness breaks the fourth wall, taking a deep breath alongside the human between the headphones to simply say "you're not alone."
My bedraggled brain doesn't remember much else from a singing class I took besides a bit of advice that my teacher gave us:
Music Artists, influencers, Indies, rarely accomplish singing with their eyes open while you're very much aware that in truth, their eyes are closed. Su Lee sings both for us and herself because her music is aware of that sense of shared experience between humans, that rare trait of empathy that encompasses each and every person in the world. All of this may sound trite, spun, extremely emotional and biased, but the lyrics and vocals are warm & welcoming, the background tracks simple but exude a multitude of brightness and beautiful colors that effect her audience the same way a family sipping drinks and silently reading feels the warmth of a fire.Insightful Professor Smith wrote: Closing your eyes says to the audience that you're singing for yourself, eyes open gives the crowds a sense that you're aware of their presence and aren't just singing for them, but to them.
To love a song is to be first be loved by that song, a concept that is regularly confused with falling into circumstance where music becomes a sign or symbol of something important. Su Lee's arranged notes speak a different musical language, a language where it isn't just the struggling musician who draws from their embittered core to bring forth sounds that make us sad. Her music is being loved by Su Lee, of course, but the magic is that she understands it is also loved by everyone who listens in.