![]() ![]() Though the depth and fluidity of her vocals provide texture as often as meaning, a few lines do fall distinctly flat: “I’ve always been a worrier/But I’ll always be a warrior” stands out as a false dichotomy of convenient wordplay. She could benefit from trading a few more generalities for evocative details. ![]() The moments when Aalegra’s facade slips are compelling for their specificity and emotional heft, but also because they supply the album’s context and dimension, the true intimacy of knowing everything’s not OK. Throughout the album, Aalegra makes refrains out of ambivalence: “I get it/Some things don’t work and that’s the way love goes,” she concedes on “In Your Eyes.” “I’m not tryna make you be mine,” she sighs on “Taste.”īut she can’t stop herself from expressing the depth of her desire, as on highlight “Tangerine Dream,” where she remembers the exact time of the flight that an ex was also on, or on “Everything,” when she sings about the way a lover’s hands feel on her face. It’s a declaration of independence that almost immediately betrays itself as overcompensation: a way to avoid feeling hurt by a partner who actually doesn’t care. “See, I don’t really care/Now I start to sound like you,” she sings, swathed in echoes of synth and a beat that rushes forward like a child down a hill. Opener “Indecisive” establishes the tension between Aalegra’s outwardly blasé attitude and the angst she’s quietly processing within. Tyler’s verses raise the stakes, calling out her inconsistency and aloofness. On “In the Moment,” one of two excellent songs featuring Tyler, she sings with the ease of butter gliding across a hot pan, alternately proclamating that she would die for her lover and that she’d be alright whether they leave or stay. She sings the titular phrase on “We Don’t Have to Talk About It” with so much poise that you’re ready to overlook the hurt along with her. Aalegra counters the experimental production with the most gracefully restrained vocal performances of her career. Listening feels like plunging your hand into a jar of marbles or swimming in a bioluminescent bay, an immersion in a world of glimmering baubles. The resulting sound is both free-associative and boisterous, a haze of ambient synth decorated with pitched vocal flourishes, syncopated ad-libs, and zig-zagging beats. With exploratory production that’s as expansive and dreamy as it is frenetic, it’s an affecting document of the pain smoldering beneath Aalegra’s curated veneer of nonchalance.Īalegra works with a number of new producers here, including the Neptunes and Tyler, the Creator. Her latest album, TEMPORARY HIGHS IN THE VIOLET SKIES, is her first project that sounds entirely her own. Still, the lyrics at times felt anonymous. She changed course on 2019’s -Ugh, those feels again, paring back the reverb and backing vocals to make room for irresistible pop hooks. On 2016’s Don’t Explain and 2017’s FEELS, her voice was often overpowered by extravagant production choices. But it was sometimes hard to tell what made her earliest music distinct. ![]() From the spacey 808s of ‘Taste’ to the delicately layered harmonies of ‘Tangerine Dream’, she shows off her voice at its rawest over impeccable production, and even flutes up to a gentle falsetto on ‘Just Like That’.It’s true that Aalegra’s golden-toned, jazz-inflected vocals make the Sade and Amy Winehouse comparisons easy. That’s the effect that Aalegra has on her bright and searching third full-length effort, ‘Temporary Highs In The Violet Skies’. After landing a developmental record deal with Sony at 13, she learned how to carry herself through with a nimble, sneakily powerful vocal style that encouraged listeners to lean in and pay attention to her vulnerable lyrics. It’s an attribute that has long defined her candid songwriting: “I didn’t mean to fall in love/Now that I need you, baby/Tell me we’ll never be apart”, she cooed on the latter’s ‘I Didn’t Mean To Fall In Love’.Īalegra began writing songs in English, her third language, at the age of nine the practice provided relief from bullying throughout her school years, and later became a way to dissect the many new experiences – romance, heartbreak, and solitude – that accompany young adulthood. The Iranian-Swedish singer – who was a close protégé of Prince prior to his death in 2016 – has spent years capturing the biggest feelings, from the breathy headiness of lust on 2017’s stunning ‘FEELS’ to the gravity-defying nausea of a new relationship on ‘Ugh, Those Feels Again’, released two years later. Snoh Aalegra advocates for being forthright about your emotions.
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