Lucid (Aṣa album)

Lucid is the fourth studio album by French-Nigerian singer Aṣa. It was released on October 11, 2019, through Chapter Two Records and Wagram Music. It is a soul, folk, and rock album that incorporates elements of funk and folk rock. It is more personal and less political compared to her previous albums. The production was primarily handled by drummer Marlon B and contains additional elements of jazz, reggae and neo-soul. The album's title depicts the place where she is currently at in her life.

Lucid
Studio album by
Aṣa
ReleasedOctober 11, 2019 (2019-10-11)
Genre
Length47:00
Label
ProducerMarlon B
Aṣa chronology
Bed of Stone
(2014)		 Lucid
(2019)
Singles from Lucid
  1. "The Beginning"
    Released: May 14, 2019
  2. "Good Thing"
    Released: June 25, 2019
  3. "My Dear"
    Released: September 27, 2019

Lucid utilizes piano-led ballads, strings and soft brass to tell a tale of the brokenhearted. The lyrics explore topics such as love, heartbreak, self-discovery, empowerment, joy, pain and identity. The album's singles "The Beginning", "Good Thing", and "My Dear" were all released in 2019. The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, who commended the symbolic nature of Aṣa's songwriting and considered it to be her deepest and most emotionally robust record. The album was support by a Lucid album tour, which commenced in November 2019.

Background and promotion

Aṣa took a five-year hiatus from music before revealing plans to release Lucid.[1] On France 24, she recalled spending time away from the spotlight in an attempt to "live normal".[2] In September 2019, Aṣa announced the album's title, cover art, and release date simultaneously.[3] In an interview with Griot magazine the following month, she said the title Lucid depicts the place where she is currently at in her life. Aṣa said some of the songs were written in her flat in Paris while others were written at her studio in Lagos. She also stated to have written the album like a diary and poured all of her joy, heartbreak, laughter and longing on it.[4] Prior to unveiling plans for the release of Lucid, Aṣa released the singles "The Beginning" and "Good Thing", along with their accompanying music videos.[3]

In November 2019, Aṣa embarked on the Lucid album tour. She performed in major cities of France, Germany, and Switzerland.[5] Aṣa was scheduled to headline the Asa Live in Lagos concert, which would have occurred at the Eko Convention Centre on April 11, 2020.[5] However, she ended up canceling the concert and her remaining tour dates due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.[6]

Music and lyrics

Lucid comprises 14 tracks and is a follow-up to Aṣa's critically acclaimed third studio album, Bed of Stone (2014);[3] it is a soul, folk and rock album that incorporates elements of funk and folk rock.[1][4][2] Compared to Aṣa's previous albums, Lucid is more personal and less political.[7] It was primarily produced by drummer Marlon B, and contains additional elements of jazz, reggae, and neo-soul.[4][2] Lucid utilizes piano-led ballads, strings and soft brass to tell a tale of the brokenhearted.[7] It explores topics such as love, heartbreak, self-discovery, empowerment, joy, pain and identity.[8]

The first song of Lucid, "Murder in the USA", is a melancholic track that is reminiscent of "Dead Again" from Bed of Stone; it makes allusions to police and uses homicide as a metaphor to resolve a doomed romance.[2] The song was accompanied by a short video that narrates the story of a young woman who was raped by her jealous fiancé. Aṣa said the abusive relationship between her mother and father inspired the song.[9] In "The Beginning", Aṣa implores her love interest to restart with her.[2] The song furthers the album's narrative undertones and was inspired by a quote from a Hindu saint who offered advice to a group of people quarreling on the Ganges.[2][10] Pulse Nigeria's Motolani Alake described "The Beginning" as a "lo-fi, melodious post-break-up song that details the residual love still between the warring partners".[11] Zama Mdoda of Afropunk.com praised Aṣa's vocal tone and said the song "lifts and uplifts".[12]

"Good Thing" is an ode to moving on after an unfavorable circumstance; the song features a pop-soul instrumental arrangement.[13] In "Stay Tonight", Aṣa claims arguments and improper timing as reasons for relationship failures; the song's production is reminiscent of tracks produced by Starsailor and Daft Punk.[8] In the guitar ballad "Torn", Aṣa sings about a desire to rip her lover's heart in half if he puts her through a heartbreak; she also contends with harsh truths and hard-earned lessons.[8][2] In the jazz-infused ballad "Happy People", Aṣa forgets her worries and documents the happiness associated with Nigerian parties.[2][8] "You and Me" contains an uptempo drum beat and guitar strumming; it has been described as the "happiest song on the album".[14] The sentimental ballad "Femi Mo" (English: "Don't Want Me Anymore"), which was performed entirely in Yoruba, addresses the breakup of a 10-year relationship.[8][15]

"Makes No Sense" provides a dose of self-awareness and portrays Aṣa as someone who has been hurt, neglected and rejected by her love interest.[2] "365" documents the end of a five-year emotionally-draining relationship; the song features violin and guitar strings.[8] "9 Lives" is a message to Aṣa's former lover on the strength that she endured, after having been through emotional turmoil.[14] Logan February said the song "falls short as a formidable statement, but works as a humanistic representation of the damage endured even by the strong".[2] In the soul-inspired track "Don't Let Me Go", Aṣa uses soliloquy to address a looming breakup.[8] The closing track to Lucid, "My Dear", is a melancholic counterpart to "Happy People", with Aṣa singing about her love interest being absent from their engagement party.[2]

Singles

Lucid's lead single, "The Beginning", was released on May 14, 2019.[16] Aṣa teased the song on Instagram prior to its release.[11] The album's second single, "Good Thing", was released on June 25, 2019.[17] The accompanying music video was directed by Sesan and released two months later; it is entirely a combination of subplots.[18] The video features a woman who is acceptant of her vitiligo and another who overcomes the urge of overdosing.[13] On September 27, 2019, Aṣa released the third and final single, "My Dear", along with a live rendition video recorded at Studios Ferber in Paris.[19]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Pop Magazine[14]
Pulse Nigeria7.5/10[8]

Lucid was met with generally positive reviews from music critics. Motolani Alake of Pulse Nigeria commended the album for showing Aṣa documenting three different thematic perspectives, though he criticized it for having "no sonic uniqueness".[8] Chuks Nwanne from The Guardian said Lucid is "about love in different guises" and praised Aṣa for "amplifying her voice on it".[20] Leslie Addo of Pop Magazine characterized the album as "a masterpiece and personal diary for anyone dealing with a broken heart"; Addo also said Aṣa's lyrical delivery will "give you the imaginative powers to transport yourself to another place".[14]

Journalist Vincent Desmond applauded the album's curation and cohesiveness, and said it has a "complete love story that wavers between indifference, loss, Sunday morning bliss with your lover and everything in between".[21] In a review for The Lagos Review, Logan February said the album "honors the highs and lows of love, and the journey of learning to be alone after the party ends".[2] Ifeoluwa Nihinlola commended Aṣa for sticking to the formulaic approach of her previous music and said "to constantly change is to betray an existential anxiety".[22] Music critic Michael Kolawole described Lucid as "a whiplash of emotion, a carefully crafted blow to the heart, an end-product of a wizened soul, and a letter of self-discovery".[7] Kolawole also notes that while the album does not break new ground, it is still a "beautiful album that's designed for the brokenhearted".[7]

In a less enthusiastic review, Carl Terver of Praxis Magazine said Aṣa failed to outdo her last offering with the album and that her lyrics have "become weakened by a preference for popular songwriting".[23] Music critic Dami Ajayi criticized Aṣa for toying familiar lines, while failing to take new in-roads. Ajayi also said Lucid is her "ambitious attempt to collapse the ethos of all her previous albums into a formidable product to keep fans swooning for another half decade".[24]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Bukola Elemide. Producer Marlon B was responsible for the essential production.[4].

No.TitleLength
1."Murder in the USA"4:03
2."The Beginning"3:44
3."Good Thing"2:49
4."Stay Tonight"3:02
5."Torn"3:23
6."Happy People"3:36
7."You and Me"3:14
8."Femi Mo"3:27
9."Makes No Sense"3:33
10."365"3:19
11."Until We Try (This Lo')"3:19
12."9 Lives"2:59
13."Don't Let Me Go"2:53
14."My Dear"3:56
Total length:47:00

Personnel

Credits adapted from Aṣa's interview with Griot magazine.[4]

  • Bukola Elemide – primary artist
  • Marlon B – producer

Release history
Region Date Format Label Ref
Various October 11, 2019
[25][26]
gollark: This is very troubling. Even in release mode, the nim markdown parser is about a thousand times slower than the rust one.
gollark: I wonder if anyone tried making some cool lisp-styled assembler so you could have more unified macros.
gollark: Frankly, I'm tempted to just make minoteaur support regularized HTML or some BBCode derivative.
gollark: Link to this?
gollark: Markdown cheatsheets are also not usable as a Markdown spec. Markdown does not actually *have* a spec, so we have a wild west of incompatible implementations. Some try to mimic the original perl script, some just do approximately the right thing in most cases, some do the easy thing in case of weirdness, some follow one of many subtly incompatible formal specs.

References
  1. Damola Durosomo (October 14, 2019). "Asa Releases Her Highly-Anticipated New Album, 'Lucid'". OkayAfrica. Archived from the original on 26 April 2020. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  2. "Lucid is Asa's most emotionally robust record yet – Logan February". The Lagos Review. May 2, 2020. Archived from the original on 15 December 2019. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  3. Dennis Ade Peter (September 11, 2019). "Asa details new album, 'Lucid'". Native. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  4. Claudia Galal (October 14, 2019). "'Lucid' - Love takes new shapes in ASA's new album". Griot. Archived from the original on 14 December 2019. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  5. Agbana, Rotimi (9 March 2020). "Asa Brings 'Lucid' Album Tour To Lagos". Independent. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  6. Motolani Alake (March 19, 2020). "Here is how coronavirus is affecting Nigerian music". Pulse Nigeria. Archived from the original on 20 March 2020. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  7. Michael Kolawole (November 8, 2019). "Asa's Lucid is a beautiful album for the broken hearted". Culture Custodian. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  8. Motolani Alake (October 16, 2019). "Asa's 'Lucid' is familiar, yet worth the wait [Pulse Review]". Pulse Nigeria. Archived from the original on 19 October 2019. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  9. "Music: Nigerian singer Asa in Paris for "Lucid", her fourth album". Tellerreport. December 15, 2019. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  10. Ani, Ivie (July 16, 2019). "Watch Asa Sing Through the Soul in "The Beginning" [Premiere]". Okayplayer. Archived from the original on 29 March 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  11. Alake, Motolani (May 15, 2019). "Asa releases video for new single, 'The Beginning'". Pulse Nigeria. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  12. Mdoda, Zama (July 8, 2019). "Asa's 'The Beginning' flies above a world falling apart". Afropunk.com. Archived from the original on 8 July 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  13. Peter, Dennis (August 28, 2019). "Asa's video for "Good Thing" is a satisfying celebration of resurgence". Native. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  14. Addo, Leslie (October 15, 2019). "Review: Asa – Lucid". Pop Magazine. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  15. Agunbiade Kehinde (22 October 2019). "Asa's Lucid: A roller coaster of love and Yoruba happiness". Music in Africa. Archived from the original on 15 December 2019. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  16. "The Beginning - Single by Aṣa". Apple Music. 14 May 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  17. "Good Thing - Single by Aṣa". Apple Music. 25 June 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  18. Johnson, Violet (28 August 2019). "Video: The "Good Thing" About Asa You Didn't Know". Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 September 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  19. Dennis Ade Peter (October 11, 2019). "Asa fourth studio album, 'Lucid' is finally here". Native. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  20. Chuks Nwanne (12 October 2019). "Asa Talks Love In New Album, Lucid". Guardian. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  21. Desmond, Vincent (October 12, 2019). "Album Review – Asa Tells A Complete Love Story On Lucid". Medium. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  22. Ifeoluwa Nihinlola (October 24, 2019). "Even When It Ends in Tears". Medium. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  23. Carl Trever (December 30, 2019). "Why we think Asa's "Lucid" is a let-down album". Praxis Magazine. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  24. Dami Ajayi (October 20, 2019). "Asa's "Lucid" springs no surprises – Dami Ajayi". This is Lagos. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  25. "Lucid by Aṣa". Apple Music. October 11, 2019. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  26. "Asa - Lucid - Amazon.com Music". Amazon. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.