Despite his clear, consistent qualities as an artist and quick turn-around for new, refreshing releases, the style of Singapore rapper Mary Sue has developed rapidly since his 2022 album kisses of life. With a tendency to self-produce raw collections of informal yet refined beats matched with an introspective and vulnerable lyrical approach, Sue’s music repeatedly evokes a special DIY feel. More recently, his growing determination has seen him work with increasingly bold collaborators from the London-based ‘beat wizard’ psychedelic ensemble to, now, the six-piece band Clementi Sound Appreciation Club. Each of Sue’s releases are special, poignant works, but this joint effort with Clementi sees Sue move in a new, exciting direction.
Their latest album, Porcelain Shield, Paper Sword, is Sue’s second collaborative outing after 2023’s glitchy CACOPHONOUS DIGRESSIONS, A RECORD OF A MOMENT IN TIME. While that record, crafted with psychedelic ensemble, brought an aggressive soundscape, this time Sue enlisted the instrumental guidance of the patient, jazzy Clementi Sound Appreciation Club to great effect. Porcelain Shield, Paper Sword is a marked step up in ambition from Sue’s previous projects, often a notable departure from their more homely tendencies and open-hearted lyricism. In comparison with Sue’s self-produced work, their collaborations tend to offer them a chance to refresh and hone their writing skills atop a wider variety of beats and sub-genres, from Sue’s own slow, dreamy approach to beatmaking to the electrifying rave energy of psychedelic ensemble or Clementi’s calm, steady live playing.
On this release, Sue expands his typical focus and broadens his perspective. He maintains a partial interest in mental health—“Iron Butterflies” explicitly addresses anxiety, for example, bringing life to “iron butterflies in my stomach/anxiety inclined”—and their ancestry along a general sense of hopefulness despite various tribulations. But Sue’s latest effort moves towards a lyrical method matching his sensitivity with a keen interest in exploring history and philosophy as the rapper’s pen oscillates between philosophical and spiritual ideas. The album leans into the use of parables, politically-minded metaphors, such as the line on “Mosquito” which states “mosquitos don’t got purpose, but these bloodsuckers are getting rich,” and arresting imagery like the evocative portrait of the sky’s “scratches on the ceiling” on “Tiger and the Ceiling.” Combined with Clementi’s cinematic instrumentals, this push towards larger-scale ideas enhances the album significantly, expanding its centering and adding depth to its musings. Its ideas are suddenly seen through an abstracted, poetic lens while impressively still feeling personally grounded.
Sue’s usual lethargic delivery is brought over from his previous work, only the slowness feels more in line with a meditative viewpoint than an exhausted one in search of solace. With consistent allegorical storytelling (perhaps best encapsulated by “frogs in the well see the moon as they own” and track 6’s repeated use of animal examples to make various points), Sue spends much of this record questioning their own worldview and thought processes. “Thief and the Bell” summarises Sue’s quality songwriting as he tells the story of a thief stealing a bell before covering his ears, seemingly thinking if he can’t hear it nobody else can and therefore won’t be caught. Zooming in to his own life with this idea of taking things causing us trouble, Sue later talks about feeling ashamed of the world he finds himself in, citing hedonism and lust for money as problems, he describes “giv[ing] it all for quick arousals” and being uncomfortable knowing “what I’d do for a grand.” Ending the song by returning to the parable of the titular thief and the bell, Sue becomes more direct and potent: “Don’t trip on the truth and then fall in the mirror.”
There is an exacting patience to Sue’s writing and vocal performances (which feels akin to the late Ka, stylistically, with its mostly monotone delivery highlighting the depth of the writing) that is well contrasted by the expressive and versatile production of the Clementi Sound Appreciation Club which is frequently shifting in its approach. Together, the collaboration sees Sue’s smart verses given texture, the music’s liveliness adding detail to and complementing the universe he describes throughout the album. The first three tracks—after the brief instrumental “Intro,” that is—capture the range in Clementi’s musicianship quickly as the harsh battery of attention-grabbing industrial buzzing and the tough, thudding drums on “Oracle Bone Script” melt away into a more relaxed jazziness before hypnotic art rock within a few minutes. The live instrumentation makes the music extra vivacious, the songs flowing freely from moment to moment, track to track, and the willingness to have multiple instrumental interludes such as “Grace” only furthers the project’s soulful emotional atmosphere.
Hearing an MC as talented and undaunted as Sue atop beats so idiosyncratic and enticing is pure musical joy, especially as many of these songs boldly mix common hip-hop staples with openly adventurous flourishes, classical boom-bap drums sit alongside in-the-moment orchestration. There is a thrilling unpredictability in both the rapping and production which keep the listener on their toes, waiting for the next surprise whether that be the layered vocals on Agung Mango’s “Horse Accupuncture” feature or the wide-ranging samples which hop between cultures and eras freely without losing the cohesion of the album’s sound.
These jumpy instrumentals, met with Sue’s witty charisma and thoughtful penmanship, make Porcelain Shield, Paper Sword a standout listen in the underground hip-hop scene. It is an album worth cherishing as it perfectly splits between the impressive prowess of its spotlighted rapper and the musical brilliance of the Clementi Sound Appreciation Club, who can shift the mood from excitable to mournful seamlessly. All in all, the record is not only merging genres and styles, it is actively widening the scope of abstract hip-hop and pushing, along with other artists, towards a deeply thoughtful, daring, and personal brand of rap music. Defying categorization at every turn, Sue and the Clementi Club push forward, exploring and experimenting.
