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Tenets

by BUHU

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1.
Yew 05:15
oh I wanted more than I could take living like a fool with nothing at stake and it feels so new with you rearranged my view, my truth well I was a lonely child who wandered astray through the halls of my youth I had no sense of my fate or who I was can you relate? then I found you, I found you, I found you like a tulip in june our love had bloomed I had been losing so long that I lost my way I've been graced by your patience you helped me believe in myself and what we have can't be replaced I love you
2.
Tenet No. 2 00:20
3.
All Eye 04:56 video
all I ever could want truth and the light all i ever could need the strength to believe believe in me all i hope to convey love, trust and strength all i hope to achieve throughout my life the wisdom of a patient soul its all around inside my head feeling down, down and blessed am i living to my best in this life all i know about faith expressed my own way all i know to be true across this earth happiness demands for change its all around inside my head feeling down, down and vexed in this privileged life I've led its all around inside my head bleeding heart beats my chest looks like things are changing yet in this, in this life
4.
La Truth 06:19 video
who are you to look at me in that way what would you stake it takes a man to face his shame with lies I've been hiding behind my cowardice and blind I've been fighting to find I'm powerless but ill keep fighting all night, ill fight until I'm right who are you to speak to me with such disdain what would you stake it takes a man to change his ways I've seen my reflection in the waters it helps to pretend i never lied to her she knows I'm lying alright she takes my hands she dies, its not right you can't know what I'm all about its true that i don't know myself now with time yeah i might and in time oh i'll try when truth evades the pain finds a home to make the time has come for me to lay the bed I've made ill leave my conjecture in the hall despite her rejection i'll bare it all she sees I'm fighting for whats right she takes my hands, we fly i finally see through the fiction of it all and my fears wash away as her love absolves cause she's right, its my life and she's mine, she's my life
5.
love, i get so lost sometimes days pass and this emptiness fills my heart when i want to run away i drive off in my car but whichever way i go i come back to the place you are all my instincts, they return the grand facade, so soon will burn without a noise, without my pride i reach out from the inside in your eyes the light the heat, i am complete i see the doorway to a thousand churches the resolution to all life's fruitless searches oh i see the light and the heat love, i don't like to see so much pain so much wasted, and this moment keeps slipping away i get so tired of working so hard for our survival i look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive all my instincts, they return the grand facade, so soon will burn without a noise, without my pride i reach out from the inside in your eyes the light the heat, i am complete i see the doorway to a thousand churches the resolution to all life's fruitless searches oh i see the light and the heat oh i wanna be that complete oh i see the light and the heat in your eyes
6.
Tenet No. 6 00:23
7.
Franny 06:20
born a wild heart a fire burning in the dark her memory floats around with feet that never touch the ground the signs are hard to read a life thats buried within a dream gifted to the wind over a lake on the side of a hill maybe I'm lost in time wondering what things would be like had you stayed in my life maybe you'd change my mind maybe i would not know my wife maybe had you survived Franny every time i see your face in my minds eye i can feel your love taking shape should i ever speak your name it reminds me of all the life that you gave in your life the stillness of my mind the quiet passing of all this time the feeling never fades remembering only your name we can't even begin to know what its like the guilt I've held for the past has defined my life oh Franny maybe I'm lost in time wondering what things would be like had you stayed in my life maybe you'd change my mind maybe i would not know my wife maybe had you survived every time i see your face in my minds eye i can feel your love taking shape should i ever speak your name it reminds me of all the life that you gave in your life
8.
Kids 04:01
we were just kids, we were just kids in love we are just kids, we are all kids forgone do you remember, can you recall when everything was new, when everything was new to you we were just kids, we were just kids of love we are just kids, we are all born of peace forgot do you remember, can you recall when everyone you knew and everything you knew was new to you we were just kids, we were just kids of hearth and home we are just kids, we are the sum of our fears and listless woes we can be kids, a truth we can accept we are still kids, a chance to love again we are just kids and we still have time

about

Tenets: principles, convictions, the core essentials. The first studio album from Austin synth pop duo BUHU is an excavation of sorts, as lead singer/producer Jeremy Rogers mines the seminal aspects and events of his life, stripping it all down and laying himself bare. It’s a risky effort; no scrims of hipster irony to hide behind here. Take it or leave it, Rogers seems to be saying throughout. Here I am, this is me. Something about the album calls to mind the scene in Spike Jonze’s Adaptation, when Donald Kaufman gently, profoundly rebukes his twin brother: “You are what you love, not what loves you.”

Love—and loss—are in abundance here. Two women play vastly different roles in what proves to be a cohesive narrative: the first, a new lover who’s shaken Rogers’ foundation and caused him to reflect, sometimes unfavorably, on the person he is or once was; the second, his late mother, who he lost at a tragically young age. These women are objects only in the sense that they’re objects of his affection and catalysts for self-reflection. His respect for each is palpable and complex. Tenets is, in essence, a love letter to them both.

We’re introduced first to his new love in the broodingly romantic opener, “Yew.” The homonym in the title is more than just whimsy; it suggests something blossoming, taking root deep within him. The very first line is a mea culpa: I wanted more than I could take, living like a fool with nothing at stake. The mirror doesn’t always present the prettiest image, if we’re brave enough to really look. But redemption comes in the simple, direct refrain that follows: Then I found you. The song is reminiscent of Frank Ocean’s confessional masterpiece, Blonde, both emotionally and sonically, as the legato restraint of the synth-and-string arrangement sets a mood that’s sexy but centered: the polar opposite of a cheap roll in the hay.

The seamless combination of interlude “Tenet No. 2” and lead single “All Eye” perhaps exhibits BUHU at their quintessence. An insistent, propulsive sixteenth-note beat pumps a sort of aortic counterweight underneath vocals so emotive and earnest that they might well feel mawkish in less sophisticated musical hands. All I know about faith, expressed in my own way. All I know to be true across this earth, happiness demands for change. This is no emo navel-gaze, though; when the ecstatic hook drops—It’s all around inside my head—the giddy lift it provokes is tactile and undeniable, seemingly ready-made for the major festival stage.

Tenets hits a galloping pace with “La Truth,” settling into a confident stride similar to some of the strongest synthgaze moments from Washed Out’s catalog. Here more than ever, Rogers leans unabashedly into the Melodyne bends of his vocal processing, laying plain his emotions without denying the synthetic tools of his trade.

The album’s midpoint is a gorgeous palate cleanser: a cover of Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” that somehow makes the song even sexier than the original. ‘Nuff said.

Side B presents a pivot. Here Rogers delves deeper into the recesses of his heart, reckoning with heavier matter than the joy of new love. “Tenet No. 6” serves as a prologue to “Franny,” with a wobbly, atonal synth passage that could easily have been plucked from some lost Tame Impala b-side. The beat that finally drops to signal the start of “Franny” is more minimal and moody than anything we’ve heard so far, almost James Blake-ish in its patient restraint. Soon enough we realize why: this is a song about Rogers’ mother, who he lost to cancer when he was just nine. It’s an elegy and a lament, a contemplation of the infinite prices exacted by that loss. Maybe you’d change my mind, he wonders. Maybe I would not know my wife, maybe had you survived—oh Franny. If a butterfly can alter the whole course of history, what effect must losing your mom when you’re nine have on the course of one man’s life?

Tenets closes with “Kids,” also moody and brooding, a fitting coda for this album that’s both sonically enormous and flagrantly emotive, while at the same time as intimate as a whisper. We are just kids and we still have time, Rogers repeats. This is irony at its highest, action-packed with pathos; he knows damn well that the words he’s singing aren’t true—that time, youth, life itself are delicate and fleeting, that even the biggest love is always a moving target.

If one word best describes BUHU’s first studio album, it might be verklempt; Rogers often sounds overcome, overwhelmed. When he’s in love, he can’t believe his luck. When he grieves, he grieves to the gills. It’s a brave, bold offering, anchored against the threat of sentimentality by the sureness of compositional instinct and production chops oozing out of every musical nook and cranny.

credits

released September 5, 2018

Tenets was produced alongside Danny Reisch (Shearwater, Bayonne, Wye Oak) at Good Danny’s in Lockhart, TX, and mastered by Jeff Lipton (Andrew Bird, Bon Iver, Arcade Fire) at Peerless Mastering in Boston, MA. It’s set to be released September 5, 2018, on FMF Records.

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