{"title":"Shura","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAleksandra Denton, better known by her stage name \u003ci\u003eShura\u003c\/i\u003e, is a British singer, songwriter and producer. She grew up in Manchester with her Russian actress mother and English documentary filmmaker father. With two brothers, one being her twin, she attended Altrincham Grammar School for Girls.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the age of 13, Shura started playing the guitar and began recording music at 16. During university, she formed a band with guitarist Patrick Duncombe and collaborated with producer Hiatus (Cyrus Shahrad), who remixed her debut single \"River\" in 2011.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInspired by artists such as Ralph, Anna of the North, Fickle Friends, Yumi Zouma, MUNA and more; Shura's unique sound blends elements of pop and electronic music to create captivating melodies that resonate with listeners worldwide.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"nothing-s-real","title":"Nothing's Real","description":"\u003cp\u003eSinger \/ songwriter \/ producer Shura releases her debut album 'Nothing's Real'. In many ways 'Nothing's Real' is the perfect title for Shura's debut album, which mixes the personal and the fantastical to beguiling, immersive effect. It features songs written and painstakingly recorded across two years in her Shepherds Bush bedroom - the site of which is blown up on the album's striking artwork - but also reaches back further than that: into parents, childhood, past relationships and the possibilities of the future. All threaded together across the album's often-affecting narrative, the record assimilates everything Shura loves - from early Madonna to Sci-fi, and War on Drugs to gaming - but is also the sound of an artist pushing themselves hard, further into the unknown. A phrase coined after a breakup, 'Nothing's Real' confirms Shura as an important artist for the years ahead. Welcome - as the record was almost called - to her Shuniverse. CD Digipack Album with 16 page booklet.2LP - Double 12\" LP \/ Heavyweight 180g Vinyl with Gatefold Packaging.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Polydor","offers":[{"title":"LP | x2","offer_id":50478479081803,"sku":"1098866","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/775ed3fb-2022-40ae-89f8-b3b9cf6b627b_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727484992"},{"product_id":"forevher","title":"forevher","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt’s the blue that hits you first. A deep, dark but ambiguous light, bathing the passionate embrace between two lovers in familiarity and newness. You wouldn’t immediately know that you’re looking at two women, or that the piece was conceived as a rework of Rodin’s The Kiss. But you’ll have certainly felt something like that blue, and on second album \u003ci\u003eforevher\u003c\/i\u003e – a title entwining ‘for her’, ‘forever’ and ‘forever her’ – Shura colours those classic images of love and self in bold new shades. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eforevher is a record born from a budding romance, covering everything from the initial pull of desire, to the giddy joy of finally being together, to recognising the moment when the connection develops from lust into something scarily meaningful. Here is a classic London-to-NYC love story, but one told through the filter of dating apps and Skype chats. And whilst how to live – and love – as a queer woman has always been integral to Shura, it’s remarkable to hear these stories twisted through such a gorgeous amalgam of influences: Joni Mitchell and Minnie Riperton, Bon Iver and Frank Ocean, Prince and Ariel Pink. Through these inspirations, Shura’s own modern, outlier perspective found a newer, more daring approach to sound and song. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShura to make an album that dissolves boundaries of gender or sexuality in acknowledging that feeling - the one we all know, when we feel it. Listen to \u003ci\u003eforevher\u003c\/i\u003e, and you will feel it too.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secretly Canadian","offers":[{"title":"White LP | Rough Trade Exclusive","offer_id":50483370656075,"sku":"1073576","price":21.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Blue | LP","offer_id":50483370033483,"sku":"1067282","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Tape","offer_id":50483371147595,"sku":"1122195","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50483369148747,"sku":"1067283","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50483369607499,"sku":"1067280","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/6c5a819a-f20a-44c5-8815-55a2dccfe3bb_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727565888"},{"product_id":"i-got-too-sad-for-my-friends","title":"I Got Too Sad For My Friends","description":"\u003cp\u003eFive years after her critically acclaimed album \u003ci\u003eforevher\u003c\/i\u003e, Shura is back with her highly anticipated third studio album \u003ci\u003eI Got Too Sad For My Friends\u003c\/i\u003e. A pastoral blend of chamber pop, sixties folk and campfire Americana, it builds Shura’s introspective songwriting out into a vast landscape – more tranquil than the soulful bounce of \u003ci\u003eforevher,\u003c\/i\u003e and more rustic than the brooding synth-pop of her 2016 debut \u003ci\u003eNothing’s\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eReal\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat landscape is both sonically comforting and representative of her headspace during the writing process, which was one of sadness and isolation. The itinerant emotional state is mirrored in the artwork, which sees Shura perched on a Welsh mountainside in a baggy jumper, ripped jeans, Converse, and cobbled-together armour that covers everything except her vital organs – part Kurt Cobain, part Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo and Juliet. The image references the French novella The Little Prince, which follows a young boy who sets out to explore other planets to cure his loneliness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThough it’s an album exploring themes of depression and loneliness,\u003ci\u003e I Got Too Sad For My Friends\u003c\/i\u003e is far from dejected it retains Shura’s usual crystalline sound and precision while introducing a different kind of warmth and earthiness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eApproached like an “old school record” that captures a performance rather than a production, much of the album was recorded live, with the keys, bass, guitar, and drums all tracked as a single performance. The vocals were done separately – with the exception of soft funk track Ringpull.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe decision to explore a wider breadth of instruments for the first time came from a sense of urgency that was, in part, prompted by the pandemic. “It made me think: this could be over at any minute. I could never get to make a record again. I could never tour again. So my approach to this record was like, if I never get to do this again, what do I want to make sure I've done? I want to record live. I want to work with textures I've never worked with before. I want to dress up as a gnome bard knight and climb a mountain in Wales, regret it, and have no one else to blame except for myself because I'm freezing,” she laughs. “So even though it’s not necessarily a maximalist record in terms of how it sounds, the approach was maximal joy for me making it… which is hilarious, because it's about being miserable!”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PIAS","offers":[{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":51135953338699,"sku":"2240410","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":51135952585035,"sku":"2240409","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Shura__I_Got_Too_Sad_For_My_Friends_artwork_0e976e4d_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1737474094"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_37b455e4_thumbnail_4096_1891be87-5420-42a9-976f-160404f7ba6d.jpg?v=1727484974","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/shura.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}