Amel Larrieux has chosen to trade the comparatively safe path of mainstream R&B, which she plotted in the early ΓÇÖ90s as one half of Groove Theory, for a musically liberated debut solo album that is happy to wallow in all things free-spirited and bohemian.
As with Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill, 27 year-old married mother of two, LarrieuxΓÇÖs music is refreshingly organic with programmed, digital sounds taking a back seat for live musianship, the Fender Rhodes, bass, wah-wah guitar and acoustic piano center stage, with a cast of chunky hip-hop beats, breaks, and samples woven into the musical fabric.
Comparisons with Badu and Hill are unfair though, as this effort stands proudly apart on its own merit. LarrieuxΓÇÖs delicate heavily jazz-inflected vocal style scats playfully around feel-good work outs such as the melodic "Get Up" and breezy "I n I." The title track hints at Sade before lanuching off into an enjoyable ΓÇÖ70s-styled West Coast fusion brew.
If things can at times become a little too downtown and cool, then some good old fashioned mainstream accessibility is injected into the proceedings with the warm, soulful ballads "Even If" and "Makes Me Whole." An accomplished start.
Amel Larrieux: All recordings written by A. Larrieux and G. Larrieux, courtesy of 550 Music and Sony/ATV Songs LLC/Jizop Music (BMI)/EMI April Music Inc./Eliza's Voice Music (ASCAP).
