Selah Sue - Selah Sue (03/04/2012)
If you had completely gone in to listening to Selah Sue’s debut self-titled album blindfolded and unaware of the cover-art you would not pick our singer for a white Belgian-born 22 year old songwriter who only recently took to making music.
There is a lot about this debut record that can be a little deceiving. It’s not one to be easily lumped into a genre, even though Sue’s influences lean towards soul, funk and reggae artists like Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu and Bob Marley, in itself the album could be likened more to a melting pot of all of those aforementioned influences with some pop songwriting thrown in to boot.
Her breakout track ‘Raggamuffin’ is the best summation of her style. It opens with some staccato acoustic guitar strums and smatterings of Jamaican style rapping and then carries into some smooth hip hop beats and flowing verse into chorus then back into another verse again.
Vocally Sue sounds eerily like early Amy Winehouse, with perhaps some M.I.A but with more melody and heart and less shouty-ranty rapping. This particularly shines through on the ballad track ‘Mommy’ which is beautifully minimalist with just some acoustic guitar and piano to carry the vocals and was produced by Meshell Ndegeocello or ‘Summertime’ with its bed of soft violins.
There are other notable artists making a feature on this record, including Cee-Lo Green who lends his duet vocals on the track ‘Please’. This track is a bit of a red herring in that it also featured on Green’s own LP ‘The Ladykiller’ and the production definitely suits his style more than Sue’s overall artistic direction, but this adds a different colour to the tracks padding it either side. The tracks ‘Crazy Vibes’, ‘Black Part Love’ and ‘Crazy Sufferin’ Style’ all share similar traits in that they’re where Selah Sue cranks out the hip-hop stylings by using driving beats to propel the tracks as well as using horns and synth for colour.
With the globalisation of music nowadays, it’s becoming harder to try and categorise new artists and even write music reviews. Generally it’s easier to liken them to their predecessors so that you can get a rough feel for where the music is heading and then expand on that.
Selah Sue’s debut album is an example of that globalisation in effect. Where people come from isn’t always a genuine reflection of the work that they produce, and we should never judge a book by its cover. Or in this instance, an artist on their looks or heritage for the sound of the music they create. Sue’s record isn’t groundbreaking but it is unique in that she proves that you don’t have to be an afro-American to produce quality soul or funk or reggae style music.
With the added support and acknowledgement of other heavyweights from that genre, she has every opportunity to go far.
Carina Nilma
There is a lot about this debut record that can be a little deceiving. It’s not one to be easily lumped into a genre, even though Sue’s influences lean towards soul, funk and reggae artists like Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu and Bob Marley, in itself the album could be likened more to a melting pot of all of those aforementioned influences with some pop songwriting thrown in to boot.
Her breakout track ‘Raggamuffin’ is the best summation of her style. It opens with some staccato acoustic guitar strums and smatterings of Jamaican style rapping and then carries into some smooth hip hop beats and flowing verse into chorus then back into another verse again.
Vocally Sue sounds eerily like early Amy Winehouse, with perhaps some M.I.A but with more melody and heart and less shouty-ranty rapping. This particularly shines through on the ballad track ‘Mommy’ which is beautifully minimalist with just some acoustic guitar and piano to carry the vocals and was produced by Meshell Ndegeocello or ‘Summertime’ with its bed of soft violins.
There are other notable artists making a feature on this record, including Cee-Lo Green who lends his duet vocals on the track ‘Please’. This track is a bit of a red herring in that it also featured on Green’s own LP ‘The Ladykiller’ and the production definitely suits his style more than Sue’s overall artistic direction, but this adds a different colour to the tracks padding it either side. The tracks ‘Crazy Vibes’, ‘Black Part Love’ and ‘Crazy Sufferin’ Style’ all share similar traits in that they’re where Selah Sue cranks out the hip-hop stylings by using driving beats to propel the tracks as well as using horns and synth for colour.
With the globalisation of music nowadays, it’s becoming harder to try and categorise new artists and even write music reviews. Generally it’s easier to liken them to their predecessors so that you can get a rough feel for where the music is heading and then expand on that.
Selah Sue’s debut album is an example of that globalisation in effect. Where people come from isn’t always a genuine reflection of the work that they produce, and we should never judge a book by its cover. Or in this instance, an artist on their looks or heritage for the sound of the music they create. Sue’s record isn’t groundbreaking but it is unique in that she proves that you don’t have to be an afro-American to produce quality soul or funk or reggae style music.
With the added support and acknowledgement of other heavyweights from that genre, she has every opportunity to go far.
Carina Nilma