Live Review: PREMIERE: RVHU pays tribute to the ecstasy of young love on 'Feelin' U'

Enigmatic Melbourne crooner RVHU (fka RAHU) is premiering ‘Feelin’ U’, the lead single from his debut EP, Outer Mind, a five track EP of self-described “Sadboy R&B” which is set to be released April 1st. However, there’s barely a tinge of RVHU’s supposed sad-boy intentions to be found on ‘Feelin’ U’, a simple but affective tribute to the grace and euphoria of young love.

RVHU channels his tribute through layers of interweaving washed-out guitar licks and soaring brass melodies, and a crunching, steady backbeat, all of which is lathered in sumptuous, atmospheric production. Bolstered by the introduction of some subtle piano, his full-bodied voice almost bursts with a palpable fervor and devotion as he lays it all out during the chorus: “Hoping we’ve just begun / I can’t be holding my lungs / Please won’t you tell me that there ain’t nobody, there ain’t nobody”.

RVHU’s plainspoken lyrics reveal an honest, vulnerable approach to the subject matter. He poses a problem early in the track: “I can’t seem to find what it means to me / All I know is that I’m feeling good, when I’m spending time with you”. And from there, he spends the rest of the track searching for a definition, a simple way to summarise, articulate and categorise the range of emotions he’s experiencing, before confessing towards the end: “I don’t know what I’m on about / But it’s your vibe I’m all about”. Along the way, he discovers beauty in simplicity and learns to appreciate the alchemy of these unclassifiable emotional states.

Instrumentally, RVHU’s also working within the margins of genre here, blending together hip-hop, neo-soul and R&B to create a sound which never falls comfortably into any of these categories. Instead, it’s all energised by the ecstasy of young love, a heightened emotional state where bliss, anxiety, passion, desire and disorientation all blur together in a way that similarly resists easy classification.

WORDS BY KYLE FENSOM

IMAGE: Supplied

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