In July of 2020, in the midst of the global pandemic, I had the opportunity to speak with rising star Ego Ella May and she revealed herself to be a level-headed, calmly focused and endearingly fresh artist with a bold future ahead of her. Her debut album Honey For Wounds garnered much love from many quarters, not least the MOBO Awards where she won Best Jazz Album for 2020. Songs from the album also began to crop up in TV shows, raising her global profile even further—spots for her music on Queen Sugar, Sex Education and Dear White People showed an ability to crossover into greater consciousness.
So now, having written for Ari Lennox and Theo Croker on their collaboration (“Every Part Of Me”) on the latter’s album, she emerges with a new EP of four songs to whet the appetite for future fuller expressions of her undoubted talent. Her debut album brought comparisons to neo-soul artists thanks to it occupying a spot with shades of jazz and soul to a mainly organic musical backdrop. This EP still dwells in that area but there is a nod to more electronic sounds that broaden the palette and allow her voice to wrap its tendrils around the listener with its beguiling tone.
It is clear the past 18 months weigh heavy on the mind of May, as the songs here deal with the intense feelings that we have all felt over the course of these challenging times. A look at the song titles reveals the thought processes in play here as evidenced on opener “Breathe.” She opens the piece with the lyric “Maybe I can’t write no more” and goes on to reveal the self-imposed pressure she struggles with before the blissed-out chorus finds her asserting her independence with a refrain of “Who says I need to do anything?” The musical backdrop is suitably chilled out with shimmering keys and her delightful lower register proving soothing balm for those who share her worries.
With “YoYo,” she addresses the uncertainty of these times, vacillating between knowing what she is doing and feeling all at sea and namechecks Badu’s “Next Lifetime” as a musical and emotional touch stone. Meanwhile, “I Feel Something” comes complete with a portentous bass and somewhat heavier beats alongside some lovely guitar work, but the star here is the slightly disconnected delivery of the lyrics that matches the emotional theme of the song.
The final song on the EP is “Speck Of Dust” and it is the standout of the four songs—it begins like a Hiatus Kaiyote song with its stuttering beat and delicious vocal harmonies. Woven through the study of our insignificance in the face of the universe and its travails is some sumptuous guitar work and May’s full gamut of vocal abilities—it is a gem.
These four songs confirm what a talent Ego Ella May is and act as an appetizer for whatever may come next. And it’s hard not to begin to feel impatient given the quality of what is on offer here.
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