Ella Mai Heart on My Sleeve.

 Second post, even I didn't think it would come out this soon but alas! here we are.

The process has not changed.

Genius page. 

Albums February 2023

Hit play on my Spotify.

Listen.

I am trying to give everything a chance. I will say, though, that I remind myself a healthy amount of times that you only get one life so you might as well live it how you like it especially what you can control. If it involves pulling the plug on a show even a minute in or a song a few seconds in even a meal just by the look of it. Do it. Of course, there is a thin line between curating and being that person who is infamous for not trying out new things. I don't know about you, but that's not the tag I aspire to have. Which is why I present to you, balance.

I start listening to this album and I am digging deep within my gut to give it a chance and this is only a couple of songs in of an 18 track album. It was at the "couple of songs" that I should have called it instead I adopted a different approach, album reviews.

I was elated to find that it was described as boring by Pitch fork yet it still managed to scored an admirable,  some (me, being some) would even say a generous7.3. Other music sites described it as generic. Even their track by track analyses, heavy use on the thesaurus. 

At this point I am scrummaging for a reason to keep listening and wouldn't you know it there are surprise audios from Kirk Franklin and Mary J. Blige. I hate to admit it but even they couldn't salvage this. Yet another apparent sign to off the headphones, yet I kept going.

Featured artistes include Latto, Roddy Rich and Lucky Daye. 

I wasn't particularly disappointed given I like only 2 songs from this artist; Trip and Boo'd Up. Two out of an entire discography, it's not looking good bruv.

It's time. It's time to admit that these heavily produced, R&B, with the endless riffs and rans and heavy basses, 'type-beats' that we see on Youtube that end up sounding like you could swear you have just heard it elsewhere; the curtains are coming down on what should have come to a close a while ago.

Let's give it up though not only for effort, but for showing up. Just like I show up to my desk job and have average days, music is a career where you need to show up and show up with your deliverables which sometimes serve the purpose of being marked as "complete". Not everything has to blow your mind. That's exactly what Ella Mai did with Heart on My Sleeve.

I may have liked two songs out of the entire 18 tracklist with one having been in rotation for most of last year ,DFM.

My two cents, she needs to work with different producers, she needs to work with producers who are also artistes like the Bryson Tillers and Ty Dolla Sign, Mustard alone, he isn't cutting it, everything on that album sounds the same. And if she doesn't have one already she should get a writer not to completely trash her writing skills but a little bit of help, even just a pinch may do more good than harm.

Maybe she already has all these things and to that I say showing up is half the victory , releasing a project is another fraction of the victory and that deserves an applause because God knows that I have been in several instances where all I have done is set out to show up and check a few boxes.