In 2012, Lianne La Havas dropped her debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough? While the album was greeted by almost universal positive reviews, the album reached #4 on the UK album charts but only 142 on the US albums chart. It did, however, garner a loyal fan-base for Lianne along with a Mercury Prize nomination for Album of the Year.
In the 2 years following the release of …Big Enough and between touring and appearances on Later… with Jools Holland, The Rockness Music Festival and Glastonbury Festival 2013, Ms. La Havas began to write songs for her follow up album. In a recent conversation with the Telegraph’s Shaun Keavney about the album, the singer admits that she was grateful for the two year gestation period to actually write the songs for the album, a luxury not afforded most artists. Another important event during those two years was being contacted by Prince to meet at his Paisley Park studios followed a short time later by having a press conference/mini-performance by the Purple One in the front room of her London flat to announce his mini UK tour.
Fast forward to July 31st, 2015 and Ms. Lianne La Havas is releasing her second studio album, Blood. Musically, she has not changed much between the two records although this record is not as “sleepy” as her first release. There is also a confidence and self-assuredness that wasn’t as apparent on her first record. That confidence shines through most brightly in her vocal performance. She no longer has the tentative approach in her delivery that lent to the sleepy effect on …Big Enough and that is quite the blessing as her voice is a revelation. In listening to her sing here you can’t help feel like you are being enveloped in warm, sweet honey.
The core theme of the album, her part Greek and part Jamaican heritage, came about as the result of a vacation to Jamaica the singer took with her mother. Ms. La Havas explores her identity as she sings in Green & Gold, “Six years old staring at my nose in the mirror/Trying to dip my toes in the mirror/Thinking ‘Who’s that girl?”, Green & Gold being representative of her Jamaican background and the colors of the country’s flag. She dreams about what her land might be like and when she will see it. “Every sunrise I know/Those eyes you gave to me/That let me see/where I come from.” she sings in the songs chorus. But it’s not all about family and heritage here. On Wonderful, she’s mourning a love lost that she can’t let go of. Over a slow, string ballad with finger-snap percussion she sings, “You can trip, flick a switch like a thief/Break the circuit between us/But electricity lingers/In our fingers.” as she mourns the love lost, but the connection that won’t end.
On Grow, Ms. La Havas changes things up a bit with a cacophonous blend of bass and drums in the chorus as she raises her voice to a near shout, “Turn up the love/turn up to sing as we grow/The future we don’t know, know/Unless we’re together.” One of the other high points on the album, Midnight, opens with a classic funk groove and breaks into a groovy, rhythmic mid-tempo dancer as she lures the listener to join her and her team singing, “If you could see what I’ve seen/You would dare to dream/Honey, if you care to join me/Come meet the team”.
It is on Midnight that you get the clearest example of how confident Ms. La Havas has become in her vocal ability as she soars up and down reaching heights with her voice that were nowhere in sight on her previous effort. Album closer, Good Goodbye, is an adieu to a loved one who is still present but soon to be gone. “Old friend, in our own sweet time/We’ll say a good goodbye/All my life I know by now/All these memories, too much to lose/No one ever leaves you/I don’t need faith, I don’t need truth/Noone ever leaves you”.
Overall, Blood is as solid a sophomore release as you can expect from a brilliantly talented singer/songwriter of Lianna La Havas’ caliber. This artist is moving in the right direction with her songwriting and music. Lianne does something that not many others do in the realm of pop and soul: she blends the sounds of artists like Sade, Prince and Amel Larieux and she makes it her own. I look forward to hearing more great things from her in the years to come.
