Is Your Love Sweet Enough?
Alone in Tokyo, some new Lianne La Havas is exactly what this writer lost in translation in Japan needs to take me back home and remind me of a bittersweet memory I used to know. Hiatuses of almost a half decade are all good when the 'Blood' of the last album still sounds as fresh as the 'Unstoppable' and 'Green and Gold' roots double-bill opener the moment it played, now five years later. A sensational sophomore album that was even bigger and better than the definitive debut classic 'Is Your Love Big Enough' from the best of British, who now 'Lost and Found' is no longer 'Elusive' like one of her outstanding numbers. And this new one is about to set the Spotify streams soaring as soon as it highly anticapted and eagerly awaited plays. The first R&B keys playing like something that sounds somewhere between Floetry and Jill Scott for a singer that is about to channel her Sade side, switching up her sound again. All whilst remaining true to self comfortable and creating her catalogue in her 30th year around the sun.
'Bittersweet' is a beautiful, happy return for many a fan tweeting and asking for new material like thrift shopping for threads. And in our digital age of overshared trends nothing fits like this nuanced and nostalgic taste of an old soul. You want to talk about range? How about vocal range? Modern music needs artists like Lianne La Havas back right now. From the pink blood and 'Green and Gold' Jamaican roots, to the red of a Colors music video vocal debut in a real big fit. This artist belongs with Adele and Leeds legend Corinne Bailey Rae as the best of the best. Even internationally beyond the British Isles. This is why the late, great Prince announced his last 'Hit N Run' tour live from her London living room, before putting her backing and vocal interludes on his 'Art Official Cage' album as a "no such thing as me or mine" affirmation, before finding his way back home. A sign off like prolific producer Pharrell's one for the 'Alaska' range talent of last years best artist and album (sorry Billie) Maggie Rogers. Neither amazing artist making their own career and luck needed it. But how cool was it?
"Please stop asking, "Do you still love me?"/Don't have much to say, let's speak in the morning/Please don't do this, I'm too far away/Don't know what to tell you, babe", she opens with bitter honesty for her first track in years. Lamenting a love lost before either party wants to admit it. We've all been there and it's all so unfair. But Havas' hallmark sound deals with it the best way she can through singing through the pain. The 'Wonderful', 'Midnight' and 'Don't Wake Me Up' singer leaves no room for doubt like the Unstoppable, undeniable cover versions of Dionne Warwick's 'I Say A Little Prayer', Alt-J's 'Warm Foothills' and 'Baltimore' by Nina Simone you vibe with on the score of her Spotify soundtrack. But now she makes the perfect playlist that's all bitter and sweet, culminating with real and raw lyrics like, "I slept all Friday and he couldn't get through/If we're good tomorrow, does that make it true?/Not completely, we're pickin' that fight everyday/This s###'s goin' nowhere, baby", that we all need in a modern day and way, filtered through the fake. The only thing 'Bittersweet' about Lianne's return is the name of the song for its perfect photograph album artwork and the full release that's surely forthcoming. As the sun goes down there's no more hanging around now. Born again from all the broken pieces do you feel that post Winter mist of Summer rain? TIM DAVID HARVEY.
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