Esthero is an R&B renegade. The Canadian-born singer has an
\nattitude of a bad bitch of R&B, but has such a strong sense of
\njazz and most variants of modern pop in her music that her style of
\nR&B is truly unique to herself.<\/p>\n
\nWikked Lil’ Grrrls<\/i>, from the way the title is misspelled,
\nmakes it pretty clear that this is an R&B\/hip-hop record. The
\npumped-up killer opener “We R In Need Of A Musical Revolution”
\ntotally suffocates this expectation. The song, with its heavy bass
\nand synth lines and well-mannered innocence, is through-and-through
\neighties soul, except for the explicit media-abhorring lyrics that
\ngo like, “I’m so sick and tired of the shit on the radio and MTV,
\nthey only play the same thing,” not to mention the unpleasant
\nreferences to Britney and Ashanti.<\/p>\n
What follows next is the spoken-word by Jemeni, “Dragonfly’s
\nIntro.” In all the purity of the spoken-word, it goes: “I am at the
\nhip-hop show, head-boppin’ in the back \/ Smoking anything that’ll
\nburn \/ During the intermission, I am in the club bathroom praying
\nin earnest for Jeff Buckley’s return.” The spoken-word, hip-hop’s
\npride, doesn’t sound so true to its roots when it makes a reference
\nto Jeff Buckley, does it? But, this is Esthero; who loves the
\nreprehensible combination of hip-hop and rock.<\/p>\n
The only rock number on the record, “Everyday Is A Holiday With
\nYou” (co-written with John and Yoko’s Sean Ono Lennon,), has
\nabsolutely no shadow of the hardcore Latino tune that precedes it,
\nor the smooth Sade-ish jazz cut that follows it. Executed in a 100%
\nBrit-pop fashion, “Everyday” has Esthero sounding like a
\nBeatles-inspired British singer of Scottish descent, who could have
\nvery well been a lead for Fools Garden (of “Lemon Tree” fame).<\/p>\n
Though the presence of R&B on the record stands out most
\nprominently, it is Esthero’s use of jazz and her use of horn and
\nstring arrangements that makes the album outstanding. From the
\ncrestfallen (“Dragonfly’s Outro,” “Melancholy Melody,” and “My
\nTorture”) to the more buoyant (“Wikked Lil’ Grrrls” and “Bad Boy
\nClyde”), these horn and string arrangements fuse fifties Broadway,
\nsixties psychedelia, and contemporary soul in such a manner that
\nthese songs are pleasures to listen to, as well as complements to
\nthese great genres.<\/p>\n
Esthero’s mastery with different genres of music doesn’t seem
\nall that clever at times, when she tries too hard to sound hip-hop,
\ninviting guests to emcee on a few of her numbers. The result is
\nshoddy — the rapping sounds too forced and out-of-place, and the
\nguests? Well, except for the smart Jemeni, the other rappers only
\nbring a genuine feeling of odium toward them.<\/p>\n
Esthero’s blending of so many different genres makes her a very
\nexciting singer. Amongst the current family of soul singers, Prince
\nhas been the only one to give soul music unimaginably audacious and
\nstrange twists; Esthero is his female counterpart. The true talent
\nof an artist lies not in the ability to cross genres, but in the
\ncomfort with which this is attained. Just ask Esthero.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":27145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7197],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38488","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-esthero","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38488"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38488"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}