***ALBUM OF THE MONTH | July 2021***
Laura Mvula
Pink Noise
Atlantic
Listen Below
Fumbling around the internet in a never-ending search for new music and random irrelevant deep dives can prove rather distracting. But sometimes, it’s educational, and every now and again, it’s magical.
A handful of years ago, I embarked upon such a search for a then-new British singer whose name had slipped my mind. Not finding who I was initially after, I stumbled across a beautiful image of a woman, her side profile strong and regal. The sepia tone of the album cover only enhanced the richness of her beauty. I was intrigued.
This was, of course, the cover to Laura Mvula’s 2013 debut album Sing To The Moon, and if the visual failed to stop me in my tracks, the moment I heard her majestic voice was when the deal was most certainly sealed. I haven’t stopped listening since.
From the onset, as I immersed myself in her music, bathing in the melodies of songs like “Diamonds” and “Father, Father,” it was clear that Mvula, a former director of the Lichfield Community Gospel Choir, was unlike anyone I had heard before. A commanding voice that defies you not to listen, Mvula was and is creating her own musical boundaries to work within. A vocality that is not only powerful, but hauntingly beautiful with a delicious dash of vulnerability at times. She is the Mousai personified, a modern Muse of song.
As Mvula entered the global arena with an incredibly soulful sound, it is also a sound that relinquishes the traditional constraints of genre, no matter how hard you try to categorize it. It is even more interesting to note that her latest album Pink Noise moves well beyond her previous sound into a slightly more commercial area encompassing electro-pop and a nod to the iridescent ‘80s. Mvula, again, is not going to be constrained by anything, and why should she be? She has the goods and then some.
Naming her third album Pink Noise—one of the most common signals in biological systems and a frequency that is ever so slightly gentler than white noise—seemed fitting given that Mvula, a Birmingham native whose sophomore album The Dreaming Room (2016) garnered the singer both Mercury Prize and MOBO Award nominations and an Ivor Novello Award, only to then see her dropped by her record label the following year. Pink Noise, along with her new label Atlantic, seems to be the very thing that has given the singer a new, lighter lease on life.
It’s impossible to not acknowledge the influences that Mvula has drawn on for this album. The album's lead single “Safe Passage” takes the journey from darkness, whatever the form, into a place of love. A fitting tune for the space that so many have found themselves in over the past 18 months. “Church Girl,” the album's second single, plays into the joyous sound that Whitney Houston toyed with in the ‘80s and breathes of a freedom not often seen on Mvula’s previous work. “Got Me” rounds out the trio of singles and is an absolute bop, opening with a sound that could be described as somewhere between Michael Jackson’s “Speed Demon” and “Billie Jean.” Organic in its inspiration, delicious in its sound.
Mvula’s confidence on this album is abundant and her accompanying physicality is resplendent and very welcomed. “Magical” is Pink Noise’s power ballad and it delivers, where “Conditional” opens with an almost Queen-like sound and then dives into a sound reminiscent of Grace Jones.
“What Matters,” a duet with Simon Neil, crystallizes Mvula’s musical vision. She and co-producer Dann Hume have created a pure pop album that allows her voice to shine and stay true to her previous work, but still able to explore the decadent sounds of the ‘80s. The album’s closer “Before the Dawn” again not only echoes this sentiment but combines elements of synth and elevated vocals that could easily be the early work of Prince or the Pet Shop Boys.
Pink Noise is totally unexpected, but so right. An album that glitters from the outside, but has more depth than your average pop album, giving way to post-COVID euphoric dance floors and never-ending pink noise. Who would have thought?
Notable Tracks: “Before The Dawn” | “Church Girl” | “Conditional” | “What Matters”
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