Album Reviews |

Nayo



African Girl 7 ( 2008 )
African Girl / Overdose On Love / Fool For You / Desert Storm / Mr So & So / Harder Than Rock / Hurting Me Anyway / Sparrow / Stranger To My Eye / Last Few Years / 1+1

Latin and afro beats sung in a sultry, soulful voice. Nayo had some resistance to the concept of 'African Girl', although she comes out proud of her heritage and also mixes up the influences to include the likes of Astrud Gilberto, Sade, Everything But The Girl alongside her Nigeria's own Fela Kuti. Contributors include Pat Leonard ( of Madonna fame ) and producer Chris Rojas, who has worked with Pink. Two club hits have already been released, the title track as well as 'Desert Storm', the latter debuted in the UK club chart at number four. 'African Girl' has been released this year, March 10th and been reviewed in some worthy, nationally known publications. Now, the promo type blurb out of the way, what you really want to know is what the album is like, yeah? Well, her voice is indeed sultry and smooth and floats across musical backdrops like a bird across desertscape. The sound is late evening sunset, classy and polished although never overdone. This isn't a club album as such, by the way, although a handful of tracks certainly have danceable beats. The rest of the album comprises of worthy compositions such as 'Harder Than Rock' which combines decent lyrics with dreamy latin style guitar, soft beats and strings. It's a lovely thing, for sure.

Annoyances. Well, the slight vocoder effect on her vocals is the main one. Why do so many albums these days see fit to mess around with the voice, the main instrument? We want it to shine out naturally, not have this weird semi lilt to it. It doesn't ruin this album, thankfully, because the quality of the songwriting is strong. '1 and 1' for instance simply shines, vocals and gospel choir and serious messages about equality. The title track and 'Desert Storm' both make for striking, instantly memorable classy singles. 'Harder Than Rock' and the excellently soulful and laid-back slow simmer of 'Mr So And So' could be future singles, the latter is particularly atmospheric and picturesque. The brazilian influences are strong as well as the African influences for Nayo's debut LP. She has a good voice, can produce decent material and could well make a name for herself in the future.

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