Breakthrough singles such as “girlfriend” and “gimme all ur love” immediately proved her immense energy, with attention-grabbing 80s synthpop melodies alongside a knack for theatrical songwriting and vocal flair blossom. With her 2023 EP, going…going…GONE! acting as a starting point for the future we now find ourselves in, it saw her vibrant ideas placed on the table surrounding her emotional spark.
In the lead-up to her debut album, the apple tree under the sea, Udu would eventually go further in sound and theme. She places herself in a storytelling concept that has a personal purpose. A fantastical journey that ruminates upon her Christian upbringing and her Nigerian roots. “At first glance, devilry will abide / So fears of reverie soothe the mind”, she sings upon “red apple”. Its grand swell introduces the tale that will unfold.
While such a concept carries a weight she needs to wrestle with, it doesn’t mean she’s leaving her imaginative spark on the wayside. In fact, she has only leaned on it with excellence. “heads, shoulders, knees, and ankles” runs off with all of its zany melodic character, with Udu going from boisterous shrieks to dramatic balladry, and “Sever the blight” stirs from its ramping rhythms and captivating hook, capturing the yearning wonder that Udu expresses throughout.
The musical expansion that Udu goes into lands in evocative stripes, amplifying the reflection she goes in deeply. “w-w-w-w-w” with its splashes of 90s trip-hop explores the scene of a forced marriage with an older, racist man to save her family away from hardships. She sounds vexed at being in this situation, gawking at his life (“Hah! He’s 73, yet his soul is astray!”) and nauseated at the thought of being affectionate with him (“I would rather kill myself than look him in the eyes and say / I want your love”).
The following song, "moses", is riveting right from the jump. Opening up to a choir passage before gliding over this thrumming drum and bass instrumentation. It emotionally contrasts with the previous song, as here, there is a constant resistance. Udu becomes stern here, singing lines like “Used my two hands to part the sea like moses / I won’t dissolve into pillars of salt baby lest I be struck in vain” and “Beware the allure of falsities and half-truths / I spurned that shit ‘cause I wanted to” with a courage building through her spirit, and never backing down from the chaotic forces around her.
"Sense(is)" reverts to 80s synthpop glory, but it’s not without a thematic swerve, as Udu now confesses on biting the apple of knowledge. Amidst bright melodies and pristine vocalisations comes the acknowledgement of reaching into such temptations. “You know it’s true, there was nothing I could do but take the wrong turn down!”, she yelps, as she is willing to take this path in her entire life.
However, not all of the creative rifts land strongly. The playful structure of “the beginning of the end” across sunny folk, buzzing synthpop, and sharp pop punk gets less impact, with production effects that overemphasise rather than add to the song’s melodic punch, and the nifty 2000s R&B of “set me free” are captivated by its summery tones, yet the blubbery bass groove becomes distracting. It’s stiff and compressed, eating up the chiming melodies as a result.
This explorative journey closes out on "be the girl!", gripping on what Udu has found out at the end. Cascading synths and shuffling grooves give space for her to emotionally contemplate. “There’s a time and a place that I thought I knew but now I know I can’t / Be the girl I used to know”, she harmoniously belts, accepting the changes from her journey that simultaneously calms and shocks her. As the song fades out, this ending puts her in an unknown stasis, for a future that exudes so many emotions, and leads to a range of directions.
But as it stands, the apple tree under the sea acts as an affirming step that Hemlocke Springs is taking. An adventurous blend of pop across various decades, with a journey that only unleashes courageous swerves rather than shrinking down. While the end of the album’s arc leaves food for thought on what ends up in her future, with the personal changes that she now grasps within her spirit, she will only discover more depths amidst the vastness of land and sea.
