Life Listens: lullaboy on Music Lab podcast, plus new music from Usher, Hozier, Hebe Tien and Zerobaseone

In this weekly column, The Straits Times curates the most buzz-worthy music you need to know about now.

Ace Album: Hozier – Unreal Unearth

In his third album, Irish troubadour Hozier delves into literature, mythology, religion and Irish culture.

Many of the tunes in the release were inspired by the concept of the nine circles of hell in Inferno, the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century poem Divine Comedy.

Best known for his 2013 hit Take Me To Church, Hozier merges these ideas into a soaring blend of folk, blues and rock.

Francesca, for instance, is a lofty rock ballad based on the tragic love story of a character from Inferno, while album closer First Light is the hopeful ascent that mirrors the end of Dante’s odyssey in the poem.

The mournful Butchered Tongue melds the poem’s circle of violence with a dark moment in Irish history – the brutal treatment of Irish rebels at the hands of British soldiers during the Wexford Rebellion in 1798.

Unreal Unearth is also the first album in which Hozier sings in the Irish language for the first time. This is most notable on To Someone From A Warm Climate (Uisce Fhuaraithe) – which refers to the feeling of coolness brought about by water – and album opener De Selby (Part 1), with a whole verse sung in Irish. – Eddino Abdul Hadi

Must-See MV: Usher – Boyfriend

American singer-actress Keke Palmer was caught up in an online controversy in July when her fitness instructor-boyfriend Darius Jackson – with whom she has a six-month-old son – publicly shamed her on social media for wearing a sheer black dress to a concert by American singer Usher.

Both Palmer and Usher are not taking it lying down.

The pair have teamed up for the music video for Usher’s latest single, the upbeat R&B/dance-pop hybrid Boyfriend, which features not-so-subtle references to the viral drama – and Palmer busting out dance moves while dressed like Usher.

At one point in the video, she takes a phone call in which she lies and says she did not party the night before. “I’m a mother, after all,” she quips, a clear dig at Jackson’s tweet that she should dress like “a mum”.

Usher’s lyrics (“Somebody said that your boyfriend’s lookin’ for me”) also seemingly taunt Jackson, hinting that Palmer is more into the musician than her partner.

Unsurprisingly, rumour has it that Palmer and Jackson have since split up. – Eddino Abdul Hadi

Stream This Song: Hebe Tien – Glimpses Of A Journey

After successfully wrapping up her second solo concert tour with a series of shows on home ground at Taipei Arena in August, Hebe Tien is back with a new single.

At her Taipei concert, where she unveiled it live before it was released on streaming services on Aug 18, the Mandopop star and one-third of beloved Taiwanese girl group S.H.E said her team had doubts about releasing a six-minute song in an “impatient era”, with listeners used to short-form entertainment.

However, she decided to go ahead with it as six minutes is not long, compared with her personal journey of growth.

Described by producer George Chen as an epic, Glimpses Of A Journey is an ethereal number which uses the hollow-body guitar to create a lightness in the music.

Tien performs the delicate song with vulnerability. Her soprano works well here to convey a sense of yearning and longing, as the lyrics go: “No matter how I chase after you/I can’t catch up with your carefreeness”. – Jan Lee

Chart Champ: Zerobaseone – Youth In The Shade

Zerobaseone are easily the most hotly anticipated K-pop debut of 2023, and for good reason.

They were formed through the popular South Korean elimination-style reality series Boys Planet (2023) that began with 98 contestants vying for a place in the nine-man group, and fans have followed their journey since then.

The success of Zerobaseone’s first EP, Youth In The Shade, showed the prowess of their fan base, selling a record-breaking 1.24 million copies on its first day of release. It is the first debut in K-pop history to cross the one-million mark in sales in a day.

Lead single In Bloom is a bright dance track with a catchy chorus that pulls off retro-chic as it samples Norwegian pop band A-ha’s hit Take On Me (1984) and its iconic synth riff.

Other tracks on the album include the spirited and summery New Kidz On The Block, as well as the opening number Back To Zerobase, which showcases the members’ vocals and harmonising. – Jan Lee

Singapore Scene: Music Lab – lullaboy

During his teenage years, home-grown singer lullaboy was so affected when his best friend stole his girlfriend that he wrote his first song, hoping that he could win her back.

He did not know it back then, but it was a pivotal moment that set him on the path to becoming a singer-songwriter.

Now a rising name in the regional pop music scene, lullaboy spoke about his formative years as a musician and more in the

latest episode of Music Lab, a podcast by The Straits Times.

The 26-year-old’s soulful, R&B pop tunes have racked up serious numbers on streaming services, pulling audiences not just in Singapore, but also in Indonesia and Malaysia.

One of his signature songs, Someone Like You (2021), has been streamed over 33 million times on Spotify alone. On average, his music on the streaming platform attracts 1.2 million listeners each month.

During the podcast session, lullaboy also performed a stirring, acoustic rendition of one of his latest singles, cool, and played a snippet of an upcoming song, Life With You.

Listen to the podcast, as well as other Music Lab episodes, at

str.sg/w9TX

– Eddino Abdul Hadi