Cruelty 5,892 Posted June 20, 2023 Share Posted June 20, 2023 I'm gonna need more people to start talking about Amaarae. It's time to meet your new favourite popstar. Her second album Fountain Baby was released earlier this month, and it's a strong contender for Album of the Year. Do you love feeling powerful? Do you love being in love? Do you love being gay? Fountain Baby will speak to you. Do you love pop, R&B, hip hop, Afropop or punk rock? Fountain Baby will give it to you. I've rarely heard any album pull so many influences from so many different places, and synthesise them together so beautifully and harmoniously. I just uploaded my full review of Fountain Baby here, but here's a little excerpt to whet your appetites: The transnational alté popstar's second full-length might just be the Album of the Year. Brought up between Atlanta and Accra, Amaarae (born Ama Serwah Genfi) wanted to reflect both of these worlds in her second full-length release. The Angel You Don’t Know, her critically lauded 2020 debut, had established her as a rising star within the alté genre (a fusion of Afropop, hip hop and R&B), but with Fountain Baby she aimed to also encapsulate “the freedom of the vision that exists outside of this pocket”. Studying Britney, Janet and Stevie Nicks to create this boundary-pushing sophomore, Amaarae wanted “to shift the style of music that’s being played on the dance floor”. The results are musically and lyrically complex, talking about how the empowering effects of love often come at a cost, but that doesn’t mean Fountain Baby shouldn’t be lighting up every dance floor in the world. It feels like the whole world can be found within Fountain Baby. Cinematic scene-setter All My Love introduces the swooping Riviera strings and dreamy harp that play a crucial part in its sonic palette, sure, but with each song countless diverse influences reveal themselves; each is distinct enough that you can appreciate the sophistication of the production choices, but consistent enough to fuse into an exhilarating symbiosis. Japanese koto melds with gunshot percussion; buoyant synth bass bobs about under peppy Afrobeat drums. Uniting this free-flowing fountain of influences is Amaarae’s dextrous vocal performance. Her voice shimmers and yearns, alternately cutesy and cutting, hopping friskily over the beats. Take the sensual push-pull drama of Angels in Tibet for example, in which Amaarae’s airy intonations “That Dior… take it off… pay homage… to the god” are met each time by an insistent “in the club!” I cannot recommend this album enough. Listen NOW! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snejana 1,003 Posted June 20, 2023 Share Posted June 20, 2023 such a beautiful, sensual and well made album, im obsessed amaarae is THAT girl Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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