Snoh Aalegra - FEELS

Snoh Aalegra
FEELS
2017
Spotify

Its funny when you listen to Snoh Aalegra it feels like you are transported back to a different age. Her music is intoxicatingly luxurious, It feels like it is soaked in expensive taste and diamonds yet still manages to be fully relatable. Plus that sultry voice, oh that voice, it just melts into you taking over every inch of space. She feels effortless and focused all at once. Her last EP was fantastic but the inclusion of rappers on FEELS is such a great idea. She also didn't reach for the trap guys who are the most popular right now and instead found the best lyricists she could in Logic and Vince Staples. It makes her stop crooning for a bit and get the vibe out of the 1950s. However that really is her gift, taking a sound that you think has seen its day, elevating it, and making it contemporary again. She feels unaware of trends in popular music and instead is able to stay in her own lane, and blaze a trail that she created for herself. She harnesses that Neo-Soul vibe that happened in the late 90s but it doesn't feel like a gimmick it just fits her voice and her personality perfectly. She does not limit herself to just big band tracks and smooth guitars though, she experiments like on the hazy "Out of Your Way" which breaths in and out in this glitchy electronic way, yet a gentle piano manages to keep the track grounded until strings set it soaring. I can imagine this concept might sound a bit weird especially in 2017 but at the core of it all is this highly emotional heart and when she sings "If it isn't to late, if it is I'll stay out of your way". You can feel the longing and the pain of realizing the one you love doesn't love you back.

All at once this album is super heady but also pure pop. Some of the production Snoh uses is so complex and all encompassing it shuts everything else out and makes the time you listen solely about that song. You are entering Snoh Aalegra's world and she is not going to let you out until she finishes what she has to say. She even manages to make Vic Mensa sound a whole lot better than He actually is. "Fool For You" is where all the slick production drops and Snoh lays herself bare. It's a raw song that is almost totally driven by her stellar vocals. "Time" is perhaps the one song that relies a little to heavily on her vocal to propel it with just a simply keyboard line in the background. However that song spills you into "Nothing Burns Like The Cold" with Vince Staples and production that is fantastic. Just when you think its going to be another old school style song a record scratches and it becomes something wholly modern and new. It boggles the mind how Snoh Aalegra is not the biggest star in the world with the incredible voice, super slick look and friends at the highest levels of hip hop. FEELS is the introduction Snoh Aalegra deserves and only furthers her already incredible mythology. Don't sleep people, Snoh Aalegra is the real fucking deal.

9.3 out of 10