Happy 35th Anniversary to Mica Paris’ debut album So Good, originally released August 27, 1988.
Being a British soul artist can be a thankless task—the soul scene in the UK is long-established but limited in scope despite the unmatched fervor of UK soul fans. Once in a while though an artist emerges who exceeds the limitations placed on the genre by the industry and enters the mainstream, achieving some level of success in keeping with their talent along the way. Mica Paris is undoubtedly one of these artists.
The story of Mica Paris’ artistry is an oft heard one from US soul singers but now transposed to the UK. Born Michelle Wallen in 1969, she hailed from Islington, North London before making the arduous journey across the Thames and settling with her family in Brockley, South London. Her family included grandparents who were church ministers, which meant Wallen was embedded in and nurtured musically by the gospel traditions that fueled the originators of soul music in the United States.
In the run-up to the 2009 release of her album Born Again, she was interviewed by venerable UK magazine Blues And Soul (whose founding in 1967 is evidence of the UK’s fervent soul fanbase) and she spoke about the importance of her upbringing in the church and the fact that it taught her to be a live artist. She said, “…when you sang in church back in my day, you weren’t singing for self-gratification … you were singing to touch and inspire the people—otherwise you weren’t allowed to be up there!”
That upbringing clearly paid off as at the tender age of 17, she was signed to Island Records and recorded her debut album. And the reason for her early start? Her voice. That voice. Experts will tell you each and every single human voice is unique (let’s hope so, for my internet banking security’s sake), but anyone who has had the pleasure of listening to a Disney pre-teen musical will know that a lot of voices sound eerily similar. This was never an issue for Michelle, now Mica.
But why take my word for it, when you can have the opinion of one of the greatest artists to ever walk the face of the earth? When Paris was 18 in July 1988, she was at Camden Palace for one of Prince’s legendary after-show gigs where she was invited on stage to sing with the maestro. She grabbed the opportunity with both hands and sang an amazing version of The Temptations classic “Just My Imagination” that has long been a staple of bootlegs pressed secretly into Prince fan’s hands.
Listen to the Album:
The second time Paris met Prince was a few months later in LA. She reflected on that meeting in the wake of his passing in 2016 for The Guardian and recounted what he said to her on that occasion: “So, we had a chat, he said: ‘I love your voice, you remind me of early Chaka [Khan].’ I was so nervous!”
Imagine having one of the greats tell you not only that he loves your voice, but that you remind him of a singer of Chaka Khan’s caliber? At 19 years of age? Confidence must have flowed through Paris like storm waters over Niagara.
There’s another huge star that Paris credits (indirectly) for her signing at such a young age. In an interview with Greatest Hits Radio in November 2022, she said that the success of Whitney Houston at the time paved the way for her own success. “The UK was looking for their own Whitney and that’s why I got signed, because really I’m a church singer—you can hear that gospel,” she explained.
But there is nothing on So Good that sounds like the power pop that Houston utilized to such great effect. Instead, here is a mix of soulful numbers predominantly put together by Mick Leeson and Peter Vale. The lead single was “My One Temptation” and it reached the top ten in the UK and crept into the Hot 100 in the US and remains Paris’ biggest hit. It did better on the adult contemporary chart in the US (reaching #7) and that speaks volumes to the qualities and themes of the material and the maturity of her voice.
At the age of 19, Paris sounded like a grown woman with much more experience of the world than her years would suggest. Her voice had a soul-drenched mixture of velvety smooth tones allied to a razor blade edge that could slice through lyrics right down to the bone. The sophistication of the material and her presentation of it is light years beyond her teenage self.
The theme of the album is, undoubtedly, affairs of the heart and Paris is ably assisted by some top-quality collaborators. Chief among them is nascent jazz legend Courtney Pine, fresh from his own imperious debut Journey To The Urge Within, who lends his stellar saxophone playing to the sublime album opener “Like Dreamers Do.” Elsewhere, Will Downing (an American soul singer also at the beginning of his career) offers his smooth tones to a cover of Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack’s classic “Where Is The Love?” that popped up on some editions of the album and “Don’t Give Me Up.”
The majority of the album hits a sweet spot—not just the songs already mentioned, but also the aptly named “Nothing Hits Your Heart Like Soul Music,” the urgent, insistent “Breathe Life Into Me” and the sassy, spiky “I’d Hate To Love You.” All of them are driven by Paris’ voice which confounds with its maturity and class. It seems impossible for her to have been a tender teenager and deliver work with such casual aplomb.
Scanning forward through her career and having read a number of interviews in preparation for this piece, it seems clear to me that there was a certain element of disenchantment with an industry that never truly recognized her gifts. And who can blame her for diversifying into other areas of the media such as TV presenting and acting, in order to keep the wolf from the door? But in 2020, she returned to her gospel roots and recorded an album of songs directly influenced by her upbringing. And her voice, that voice, sounded imperious enough to make a nonsense of an industry that never really bothered with a talent as immense as Mica Paris.
More fool them.
Listen: