Lianne La Havas - Lianne La Havas (2020) [Official Digital Download]

With her third album, British singer-songwriter Lianne La Havas once again proves that her voice is unlike anything else in this world. She unleashes its full transcendence straight out of the gate with the sexy piano R&B of "Bittersweet," going from a husky, dusky alto on the verses to soaring high above the trees on the chorus. For the dream-like "Green Papaya," she manages to match it to the ambient strings so they together sound like pouring liquid—water finding its way around rocks. Her style is soul and R&B that refuses to fit neatly into a box; no wonder Prince was a big fan and mentored her creatively in his last years. There's a Roberta Flack tenderness to "Courage" and shades of Alicia Keys on the simmering "Can't Fight," and La Havas easily branches out to cover Radiohead's "Weird Fishes," drawing out the words "eyes" and "I" to dizzying effect. Meanwhile, "Seven Days" and "Please Don't Make Me Cry"—all stuttering percussion and free-floating melody—make a solid case for the return of trip-hop. Her jazz phrasing on "Read My Mind"—magic on the line "sweet joy when a girl meets a boy"—is like an aural push-pull with the song's gentle rubber-band-bounce rhythm before the whole thing unspools into piano trills and hypnotic chanting: "What are you waiting for?" Single "Paper Thin" uses organ and laidback drums to set a slow and easy rhythm, building a safe cocoon for La Havas' fragile, low-to-the-ground delivery. "Paper-thin/God only knows the pain you're in… I know your pain is real/But you won't let it heal," she soothes. It's a cliché that music is an escape, but an apt one here.

TRACKLIST

1. Lianne La Havas - Bittersweet (Full Length)
2. Lianne La Havas - Read My Mind
3. Lianne La Havas - Green Papaya
4. Lianne La Havas - Can't Fight
5. Lianne La Havas - Paper Thin
6. Lianne La Havas - Out Of Your Mind (interlude)
7. Lianne La Havas - Weird Fishes
8. Lianne La Havas - Please Don't Make Me Cry
9. Lianne La Havas - Seven Times
10. Lianne La Havas - Courage
11. Lianne La Havas - Sour Flower
12. Lianne La Havas - Bittersweet



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