Adi Oasis
Lotus Glow
Unity
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Formally known as Adeline, Adi Oasis is a French-Caribbean singer, writer and bass player with three albums under her belt. Her new album, Lotus Glow, finds her scaling new artistic heights and proving that her pen can cover a variety of subject matters with aplomb. At the forefront of it all though is her nimble bass playing, which smothers everything in a thick, syrupy funk.
Thematic topics take in love and sexual desire as might be expected, but there also lurks a political aspect alongside an ever-evolving search for personal growth. The most successful moments come courtesy of the combination of nasty bass grooves and sexual desire and nowhere is that better illustrated than on the bubble-bass fueled gem “Multiply.” When she coos “You make me wanna multiply / I feel it when I’m next to you / Wanna make a baby / Got me going lately,” no flash forwards to sleepless nights and empty wallets could stop someone from acquiescing to her desires—its steamy, sultry and entirely alluring.
The same sexiness abounds on “Get It Got It” when she beseeches the focus of her attentions to “melt on me” and on “U Make Me Want It,” she writhes vocally like a coiled spring of sexual desire.
Other themes emerge throughout the album—she takes the Greatest Tennis Player Of All Time as her inspiration to “hit high like Serena” and she joins with Jamila Woods on “Red To Violet” to assert her independence and growth singing “I’m done with people pleasing.”
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Two social issue songs sit nestled together in the center of the album. “Marigold” showcases the point at which the personal becomes political with talk of not being good, light, white, boy, girl, straight enough for the industry and the world at large, all to the woozy accompaniment of that funky bass and some twinkling keys before the final lines offer some triumphant assertions of being enough. “Dumpalltheguns” meanwhile arrives seemingly hewn from granite with a self-explanatory theme and attitude to spare. The instrumental breakdown at its conclusion is a real highlight too, with its monumental bass and congas bringing to mind the past masters of soul.
The album fizzles out towards the end, rather than going out with a bang so it could cope with some judicious pruning, but the overall impression of the album is as a great showcase for a multifaceted writer with a killer bass groove to show off.
Notable Tracks: “Get It Got It” | “Multiply” | “U Make Me Want It”
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