Meg Lui Instant Validation

On her debut album Instant Validation, Northern California-born singer/songwriter Meg Lui shares an up-close glimpse into the magnificently curious wonderland of her mind, offering up a batch of songs both rooted in raw emotion and inhabited by a fantastically surreal cast of characters: anthropomorphic flowers, sea monsters, Elvis Presley, the ill-fated lovers of ancient Greek myths. The album, produced by Sufjan Stevens and released on his longtime label Asthmatic Kitty Records, brings Lui’s intimate songwriting to an extravagantly detailed sound anchored in her warm yet commanding voice—an instrument she’s wielded to glorious effect in singing background vocals on acclaimed releases like Stevens’ Javelin and John Legend’s My Favorite Dream. As the Hudson Valley-based artist’s first full-length project after years of musical soul-searching, Instant Validation is a radiant showcase for Lui’s rare balance of tender sincerity, quick-witted charm, and joyfully unbound imagination.
Lui embraced a deliberately playful approach to the making of Instant Validation, carving out time for the album while holding down three jobs. After connecting with Stevens through mutual friends in the Catskills, the two began expanding on demos she’d gathered over the past decade and allowed each song to evolve with total abandon. “Before we worked together, I hadn’t realized how much I needed someone to help me let go and let the songs become what they wanted to be,” says Lui. “The way his mind works is unstoppable in a beautiful way, and I felt comfortable with him to just let the ideas flow.” With its title lifted from her sunny yet incisive portrait of the suffocating grip of our collective addiction to technology—and the insanity of living through a screen—Instant Validation ultimately presents a deeply lived-in look at building a meaningful life amid the chaos of the modern era.