I really wanted to like her first album Sing to the Moon more than I did, but it just never fit into my regular rotation for one reason or another.
All three of the songs preceding her upcoming The Dreaming Room are working for me on every level, though. "Overcome" with Nile Rodgers and "People" with Wretch 32 are really great. "Phenomenal Woman" is like some next world shit, though, and seeing the video for it today only amplified that feeling. I mean, holy f%@k.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7---iGdDIBQ
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Friday, 6 May 2016 00:02 (seven years ago) link
Oh cool, thx! Will def. check. Yeah, the debut had to grow on me too; my 2013 comments:
Laura Mvula---Sing To The Moon: Art-pop ballads, slower sometimes than I usually like, and some of this took a while, but each track has elements which engaged me right away (and enough others quickly enough), instrumentally and lyrically, winning me over long before the first spin was over.Early on, she mentions "Tried to write the perfect song/Then I realized/It wasn't mine", just at the right time--it is hers, but a little reminiscent of something or other---maybe just a breezy moment that feels too easy, not quite earned yet. So, on with the show, which risks seeming too absorbed in contemplation of the love object and lessons learned, but hey. She's always got another good line, like "take my heart, but not my soul", and another trace of springtime lightning spilling out of her sleeve. Not quite like anything else I've heard---maybe if Joan Armatrading--oh never mind--just check it out. It sounds like my favorite picture of her looks: straight ahead, just not at us. (My Pazz & Jop Singles pick) “Flying By Myself” sails by, with an invitation I can’t deny: despite the already-stylistically repetitive moments, and some murk, she’s got a bright future, which tracks like this will still reflect, even if she moves on out of sight.
― dow, Friday, 6 May 2016 00:11 (seven years ago) link
wasn't really into the nile rodgers single but "phenomenal woman" is delightful
― art baengels (monotony), Friday, 20 May 2016 02:11 (seven years ago) link
The albums was supposed to come out May 6, but it was pushed back to June...which is, frankly, unacceptable. Why? Because I want to hear it!
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Friday, 20 May 2016 02:23 (seven years ago) link
Out today. Absolutely a joy to listen. Quite beautiful in places, smile-inducing in others.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Friday, 17 June 2016 17:26 (seven years ago) link
Feels really short. Nine tracks, right?
― hypnic jerk (rushomancy), Friday, 17 June 2016 18:42 (seven years ago) link
It is compact. (Like more albums should be)
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Friday, 17 June 2016 19:55 (seven years ago) link
thread title makes me think of seinfeld
― de l'asshole (flopson), Friday, 17 June 2016 22:43 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMgHWQipby8
This is a lot better than her debut. The production is really outstanding.
― Kitchen Person, Monday, 20 June 2016 01:00 (seven years ago) link
flopson otm
― Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Monday, 20 June 2016 02:09 (seven years ago) link
Oh wow. Isn't this lovely? Bread, Show Me Love, and Angel are early favourites.
― It certainly is punk of the Church of England to think that way (tangenttangent), Tuesday, 21 June 2016 11:11 (seven years ago) link
"Let Me Fall" is maybe my favourite of the newer ones. She has a real gift for layered vocal arrangements - someone I think on TSJ I think noted how her music sometimes has almost a medieval quality
― art baengels (monotony), Wednesday, 22 June 2016 02:39 (seven years ago) link
i like the compactness too - this and the ngaiire album are the perfect length
something's happening. she did a virtual concert this week and performed a few new songs, as well as some older ones that were dramatically reworked.
the older tracks and a cover of diana ross' "i'm still waiting" have been uploaded for streaming here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RScMtd6wUo
she's been working with dann hume, tkay maidza's producer. i'm excited!
― monotony, Thursday, 25 February 2021 23:25 (three years ago) link
I am too. These new reinterpretations are rad.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 26 February 2021 05:20 (three years ago) link
Also! Azana - Ingoma
― dow, Friday, 26 February 2021 05:33 (three years ago) link
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/seinfeld/images/2/26/Mulva.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120922010757
― flopson, Friday, 26 February 2021 06:59 (three years ago) link
The Dreaming Room was one of my favorite records from that year. Excited to hear this!
― octobeard, Friday, 26 February 2021 07:47 (three years ago) link
I was thinking the other day how she seemed to have been inactive for a while, this is good
― boxedjoy, Friday, 26 February 2021 08:49 (three years ago) link
iirc things got nasty between her and the record label
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 26 February 2021 15:43 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt0w1LDMlqcNew single "Safe Passage"
― vcrash, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 18:24 (three years ago) link
hmmm
this is a bit too cliched-80s for my liking. doubtless you'll all go apeshit. where's Brad
― imago, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 18:31 (three years ago) link
i mean it's got some lovely melodies and all but the sound is so...it's so what I said
Sony dropped her in 2017, I'm sure that slowed things down
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/laura-mvula-record-label-sony-dropped-email-a7641066.html
― akm, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 18:44 (three years ago) link
This is nice, but there's not much of a song beneath it.
Making 80s music at a time other than the 80s is a perfectly credible and legitimate thing to do and I'm tired of people pretending it isn't. Nobody ever complains about jazz sounding "too 50s" or house music sounding "too 90s." It's a choice and it's a valid one.
I'm mostly glad a bunch of people it appeals to actually frequent this place. It's one of the reasons I stay.
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 4 March 2021 00:00 (three years ago) link
I mean, quit looking at it as pastiche and nostalgia mining and start looking at it as making new art with an established tool box.
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 4 March 2021 00:10 (three years ago) link
Her voice is as incredible as its always been and despite the 80's production it's still undeniably her and has distinct elements of her style. I like the single, but it doesn't have a well defined hook, which is what I think the criticism is over.
I also don't get the 80's dissing. Musicians have been riffing on retro styles since there was music to be remembered. Should we jump on Todd Rundgren for copping the sound of 50's rock and 60's soul in the early 70's?
― octobeard, Thursday, 4 March 2021 07:43 (three years ago) link
otfm
― octobeard, Thursday, 4 March 2021 07:44 (three years ago) link
'new'
it's not that this is mining the 80s, it's the degree to which it sounds like a direct unaltered copy
― imago, Thursday, 4 March 2021 20:18 (three years ago) link
http://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A17LM3kHXuL._SS500_.jpg
Album out in July, second song "Church Girl" out today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHdIqqUZLoM
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 17 March 2021 12:10 (three years ago) link
I really can't get enough of this chorus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-I5jF1fDcw
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 16 April 2021 12:12 (three years ago) link
A (Google-sponsored?) dance video and remix by Dmitri from Paris:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cHh2EAupZ0
― vcrash, Friday, 30 April 2021 16:25 (two years ago) link
And, for completeness, the Romare remix:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cdwxB7AM3o
― vcrash, Friday, 30 April 2021 16:26 (two years ago) link
came here to post that Romare remix, it’s fantastic
― Long Tall Arsetee & the Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Saturday, 8 May 2021 11:09 (two years ago) link
...and it isolates that chorus to mantra-like effect!xps to JF
― Long Tall Arsetee & the Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Saturday, 8 May 2021 11:37 (two years ago) link
"got me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD7LMNCLbwA
― monotony, Thursday, 13 May 2021 01:51 (two years ago) link
Love this one too. What struck me most is there are some chord voicings/progressions in this song that no one has used since 1986 and lordy I've missed them. If you're going to use this toolbox, as I've alluded to upthread, use all the tools.
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 13 May 2021 03:37 (two years ago) link
A video for got me, which is just as 80s as the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJohzGzstag
― vcrash, Wednesday, 2 June 2021 14:10 (two years ago) link
latest single is a duet with the lead singer of biffy clyro (not as awful as that proposition might seem):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rX3TFjduDw
― monotony, Thursday, 17 June 2021 23:36 (two years ago) link
Listening to the whole album now. There's some variety here, but dynamically the parts that are meant to be quieter are still not quiet enough. Possibly a combination of a powerful singer and a producer afraid to go easy. Good, could've been better.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 2 July 2021 04:37 (two years ago) link
I’m finding it immensely fun though I can sense the “pastiche” critiques will come thick and fast.
― monotony, Saturday, 3 July 2021 07:42 (two years ago) link
I'm in on the "immensely fun" thing. I love it most when it reminds me of the Parachute Club album.
― glenn mcdonald, Sunday, 4 July 2021 17:25 (two years ago) link
this is good but why does the guy from biffy clyro show up lmao
― ufo, Tuesday, 14 December 2021 02:31 (two years ago) link