Anyway, until very recently, I'd never heard of Lianne La Havas. She's put out two albums and has a third coming out this year, but she's not very well known. But I happened to come across a video of her playing a recent "Tiny Desk" concert with just an acoustic guitar, and I'm big on acoustic music, so I decided to check her out. I was impressed. That was a short performance, but when I found out she did a longer home concert last month, again in the solo acoustic format, I gave that a listen and liked it enough to post it here.
La Havas is a British singer-songwriter with both a Greek and Jamaican ethnic background. Her released albums are in the "neo-soul" genre, but I'm not that impressed with them. I suspect her record company pushed a generic slick production on her music in hopes of making her more commercially appealing. But after listening to some of that and some of her solo acoustic performances, I feel strongly that it's playing solo acoustic where she truly shines. She has a unique style that's folky, soulful, and jazzy all at once. If you've never heard her in this mod, I recommend you give her a shot. I have a high bar for new artists, but she jumped over the bar, at least when she plays in this format.
The recording comes from her Instagram account. The video is 53 minutes long. But there was a lot of dead air between songs, so I wound up cutting it down to 41 minutes. I cut out some of the talking that I felt was unnecessary. For instance, there was a section where she was testing her microphone, and another section where she got feedback on the amount of reverb she was using. I boiled this down to just the music and her relevant comments.
I'm far from an expert on her music, since all I have from her is this, but I gather that all the songs here are originals, except for "He Loves Me," which is a cover of a Jill Scott song.
01 talk (Lianne La Havas)
02 No Room for Doubt (Lianne La Havas)
03 talk (Lianne La Havas)
04 Au Cinema (Lianne La Havas)
05 talk (Lianne La Havas)
06 Green and Gold (Lianne La Havas)
07 talk (Lianne La Havas)
08 Tease Me (Lianne La Havas)
09 talk (Lianne La Havas)
10 He Loves Me (Lianne La Havas)
11 talk (Lianne La Havas)
12 Paper Thin (Lianne La Havas)
13 Unstoppable (Lianne La Havas)
14 talk (Lianne La Havas)
15 Bittersweet (Lianne La Havas)
16 talk (Lianne La Havas)
https://www.upload.ee/files/15262196/LiannLH_2020_HmeConcertLondnBritain__5-10-2020_atse.zip.html
The cover art is a screenshot from the concert in question. It's somewhat low-res, but I went with it anyway.
As far as new talent check on Youtube for Chantel McGregor who does a weekly Live At The Shed.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'll check her out.
DeleteI saw her live in London at the MOTH Club about a week before the world shut down. She’s fantastic. I also caught her in Atlanta the summer before. Her band was tight.
ReplyDeleteI could give tons of recommendations but I’ll just throw out a few favorites for now.
Polly Paulusma is a brilliant singer/songwriter from Cambridge, England.
Kevin Gilbert was a musical genius who was in Toy Matinee (phenomenal album) with Patrick Leonard before putting out his only solo album Thud. The Shaming Of The True was completed and released posthumously by a couple of close friends and it’s stunning. Oh, and Sheryl Crow was his girlfriend and wouldn’t be a household name if he hadn’t basically rewritten her debut album (after the record company rejected it) with a group of musicians he met up with once a week that called themselves The Tuesday Night Music Club. Look up his song “Leaving Miss Broadway” for his side of the story.
Sopwith Camel’s 1973 album The Miraculous Hump Returns From The Moon is a little-known gem. Their mid-‘60s debut album was the first to come out of the psychedelic San Francisco music scene.
If you don’t know about XTC’s mid-‘80s alter-ego project The Dukes Of Stratosphear, get on it immediately. They took on a psychedelic persona in the styles of ‘60s Beatles, Beach Boys, Byrds, Pink Floyd and the like with incredible attention to detail. Absolutely brilliant.
Lastly, my first album was The Rutles soundtrack from the fantastic Beatles parody film All You Need Is Cash from 1978. The songs are amazing and I love them every bit as much as the songs they satirize.
love her, thank you!
ReplyDeleteoh, but it looks like this file expired?
Deletestill not working for me, unfortunately :(
Deletebut thanks so much for all your work on this page – what a labor of love! :)
Deleteworked! thanks!!
DeleteExpired
ReplyDeleteFixed it.
DeleteCan we get a new link please. Thanks
ReplyDeleteBoom. Done.
Delete