The lyrical substance of “Nothing in Return”, the debut single from 20-year-old Toronto-via-Ontario singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Monsune (Scotty Zhang), is deceptively simple. As he explained, the song revolves around romantic vulnerability - about "being at the beck and call of a potential lover." The song's chorus thus points towards the paralyzing agonies and anxieties you experience when you are uncertain about whether your affections will ever be reciprocated: 'If you kept me waiting on your words/ Would you give me nothing in return?/ Said I'd promise you the world/ If you could do the same/ And I would go the distance/ If you could take the blame.'
Zhang is nevertheless a skilled composer and sampler who ensures that the track does not flatten out into a one-dimensional pity party. His soulful vocals (which were chosen "specifically because they have a raw, organic quality to them that lends a feeling of spontaneity and vulnerability to the record") convey only a hint of desperation while evoking the exhilarating sensation of pursuing a risky romantic endeavor. The samples from jazz harpist and composer Dorothy Ashby, jazz musician Dr. Lonnie Smith, funk band Skull Snaps, Japanese singer-songwriter Aiko, jazz flutist and singer Bobbi Humphrey and French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg lend an eclectic flair to the track, while his horn-intensive orchestral sections invoke an unassailable rush of euphoria. The song's effect - on listeners and his addressee - is speechlessness: 'I guess your silence/ Keeps me warm.'
In the music video, Zhang spins around a playground turntable with his friends as he transitions from pensiveness to elation. Is he deluding himself or is he deservedly confident that his confession was powerful enough to effect a change of heart? Either way, the single artwork - which features an illustration of an androgynous Chinese man calmly standing with his back to a burning building - suggests that there is no emotional setback that he cannot recover from.
