Meg Lui Announces Debut Album Instant Validation, Produced by Sufjan Stevens

After years as a backing vocalist, Meg Lui will release her debut album Instant Validation on September 25 via Asthmatic Kitty Records. Sufjan Stevens produced, engineered, and played nearly every instrument on the project, recorded at his studio in the Catskills.

The single “Elvis Queen” is out now, with backing vocals from Stevens and Liam Kazar and a video directed by Joe Raffanti. Lui originally wrote the song as a slow ballad for her late aunt, an obsessive Elvis fan. “She was a very joyful person, so it made sense for it to feel a little bit like a party,” Lui said. The brighter arrangement that made the album follows earlier previews “Gone Girl” and a cover of the Cranberries’ “Dreams.”

Lui pieced Instant Validation together from demos written over a decade. Contributions from Hannah Cohen, Sam Evian, David Lizmi, Chris Holdridge, Olivier Manchon, and Lui’s partner Keenan O’Meara thread through the record, but Stevens’ influence is central. “In the past I’ve tried to fit into some sort of Americana or indie mold, and it always felt a little flat to me,” Lui said. “With Sufjan there was so much more out-of-the-box thinking, and we ended up adding layers upon layers that created an unrestrained soundscape for the record.” The songs probe love, family, technology, and dissatisfaction through surreal characters—anthropomorphic flowers, sea monsters, Greek mythology—while returning to a simple realization: “Making things feels good, so go ahead and make what you want and don’t take yourself too seriously.”