As an Amazon affiliate partner, Albumism earns commissions from qualifying purchases.
Joshua Idehen
Learn To Swim, A Mixtape
Self-released
Listen Below
Joshua Idehen is a man of many talents—he is a poet, musician, writer and novelist (amongst many other things) born in Britain to Nigerian parents and currently based in Sweden. His thunderous poetry has enriched the work of The Comet Is Coming and Sons Of Kemet, with contributions to the latter often being righteously indignant and dripping with disgust for the societal structures that subjugate Black people and other marginalized groups.
Here, on what he calls his most personal work, there is a palpable sense of deep exhalation and a chance to reflect on his life thus far. As with most people, his life has been changed by parenthood and a desire to not pass on the trauma in him to his daughter. The accompanying press release finds him reflecting on his anger and bitterness at the state of his life (with a broken marriage behind him) and the world at large, in light of recent events including the COVID pandemic and George Floyd’s death. But he also realizes that a non-stop diet of angry diatribes would result in him not being heard by ears less willing to hear.
But willing ears there should be aplenty, as he drops memorable, meaningful line after line to the accompaniment of a variety of euphoric choruses and gently throbbing variations of dancefloor life. The loss of friendship is a recurring theme that unfolds with devastating heartbreak on “Last Time” and “End Of The Line,” the former of which has a soaring chorus that excites and uplifts.
Another theme is the use of gospel influenced choruses that do a similarly enthralling job. On “Don’t Give Up On Me” he sings, “Lonely soldier / World on shoulders / That’s how this atlas stands” before a defiant chorus of gospel joy expels any residual negativity. Reflections on love and relationships also make an appearance. On the two-step groove of “Best Kind Of Lost,” he talks eloquently about a love born in clubs and transported to the sprawl of urban living: “I kiss the summer on your lips / And just like that the sorrow lifts / Measuring the evening in cigarettes, arguments, coffee stops, backseats / Sudden bursts of warm passion / We feel blue in different ways / And when our colors mix, we blaze…”
Listen to the Album:
But the heart of the album, both literally and metaphorically, is the incandescent beauty of “Learning to Swim Part II.” The muted music is elegiac piano and the comforting flow of waves breaking onshore. The lyrics, meanwhile, mix big and bold statements about the state of the world with intimate pearls of wisdom. The entirety of the lyric is eminently quotable and forms a manifesto of sorts for Idehen—you could do a lot worse than follow the advice he offers as he reflects on his life thus far.
He takes a classily restrained swing at virulent narcissist Boris Johnson, encourages self-love and warns against worshipping idols (unless its Keanu Reeves, “because Keanu Reeves is perfect”). There is also a piece of information that we’d all do well to remember: “All the paper straws in the world / Won’t save a single polar bear / But making Amazon pay their proper taxes…could.”
The song is five minutes of pure, unbridled self-acceptance and the accumulated wisdom of a life lived well and his reflections of getting older are keenly observed, as manifest in lines like “More often than not, you won’t resolve all those loose ends / Your life isn’t that kind of movie / It’s more like a rambling soap opera that’ll eventually run out of budget . . . If you’re lucky / One day you’ll wake up / And you’ll be out the zeitgeist’s eye.” The song’s impact is fiercely uplifting and chimes redolently with me, as a man of a similar age and similarly reflective stage of life.
Over the course of its relatively short running time, the album is a lament for lost relationships (both romantic and platonic), a paean to the transformative value of love and a rallying call for equality wrapped in hope. It’s a little gem waiting to be loved and taken to heart—I certainly have.
Notable Tracks: “Don’t Give Up On Me” | “Last Time” | “Learn To Swim Part II”
As an Amazon affiliate partner, Albumism earns commissions from qualifying purchases.
LISTEN: