FEATURE:
Revisiting...
Cleo Sol - Mother
__________
THE second studio album…
from the brilliant Cleo Sol, Mother was produced by her long-time collaborator Inflo. The album was inspired by Sol’s voyage into motherhood. It's reflective, intimate, and private. An album as strong and memorable as her debut, Rose in the Dark. Although it got some attention when it came out, Mother did not really get the reviews and focus that it deserved. Released back in August, it is underappreciated and should get new light. Some gave it a mixed review and were a bit disappointed. I feel it is a really strong and open album that pulls you in and keeps you listening. COMPLEX highlighted the album last year:
“Following last year’s universally adored Rose In The Dark, Cleo Sol is back with an album that challenges its predecessor’s supremacy. Titled Mother, the new project adds to an extraordinarily stellar run from the West London singer-songwriter, who’s been a beacon in British soul (and R&G) since the early 2000s.
This year alone, Sol has made standout appearances on Little Simz’s “Woman” and played a major role in SAULT’s critically acclaimed LPs. Now back on her own path, Mother is a deeply personal collection that explores, as the title suggests, motherhood, as well as the value in finding support networks in tumultuous times.
Cleo’s own mother has been an ever-present influence on her music from day one (even the ‘Sol’ part of her name was taken as tribute to her mother’s Spanish heritage) and that was particularly true on 2019 single “Sweet Blue”. Two years later and Cleo herself has just become a mother, an experience she describes as “the most transformative, uplifting, heart melting, strength giving experience thus far that led me to write this album.”
Bridging the gap between her mother’s lessons, her own experiences and everything she wants to pass on to her own child, all of this is poured into her latest outing. Bringing that to life with the production, her long-standing collaborator Inflo calls on the spirit of ‘70s and ‘80s soul and ties it to the present day for a sound that’s genuinely timeless”.
As part of the band SAULT, Cleo Sol’s voice has scored some of the best albums of the past couple of years. There was a not of negativity from some when it came to her solo album. Not as powerful and experimental as a SAULT album, Mother is worthy of a lot more love and respect. The New Yorker wrote about Mother (and Halsey’s album, If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power):
“In her work as a member of the enigmatic British R. & B. collective Sault, Sol riffs on the dance music of Black diaspora. Her solo music is less groove-oriented: on last year’s “Rose in the Dark,” Sol brewed a slow-burning soul sound. The twelve songs here, produced with Sol’s Sault collaborator Inflo—a decorated musician known for his work with the rapper Little Simz and the singer Michael Kiwanuka—are even quieter, more delicate, and more intimate: the focus is Sol’s voice, in conversation with her history and future. Her voice soothes and reverberates, and the small band constructed around it is designed specifically to amplify its power. The instrumentals are driven by piano, with soft-blended accents of conga drums, strings, and acoustic and electric guitar, tipping with the gentle rock of a cradle.
Sol envisions motherhood as something cyclical: lessons taught, and then unlearned. “Forgive me, I’m not what you want me to be / But I was raised under a roof of unfinished dreams,” she sings on “Build Me Up,” seemingly speaking to her own mother. Dreams, unfinished and not, push the narrative forward. “One Day” and “We Need You” imagine a child going her own way, and acknowledge how doing so might be necessary. “We need your voice, speak your truth / We need you,” the chorus sings on the latter. Motherhood, as Sol conceives of it, is characterized by reciprocity. In many of the album’s most revealing moments, it’s tough to discern the perspective—who is singing to whom, who is giving the lesson and who is receiving its message”.
I want to end with a review from AllMusic. Whilst there were those who were not overly warm and completely positive about Mother, there were strong reviews that saw the full picture and potential. People definitely need to listen to Sol’s incredible 2021 album:
“Cleo Sol's second solo flight in as many years followed the third, fourth, and fifth albums she made with main musical partner Inflo and company as Sault. One of the trio, Untitled (Rise), was shortlisted for the 2021 Mercury Prize. That Mother is an engrossing double album -- and was in the chamber before the June 2021 arrival of Sault's fifth album, Nine -- is yet more evidence of Cleo Sol and Inflo's high levels of productivity and quality control. Like Rose in the Dark, this was written almost exclusively by the duo together and produced entirely by Inflo, with no further information provided. It's essentially another set of out-of-time soul ballads, yet it's somehow both more concentrated and expansive, eliciting comparisons to Roberta Flack and Carole King at their most intimate and inviting, and the concurrent productions of Charles Stepney, whether it's the spirited group choruses or the harp glissandi. That's not to say Mother isn't its own thing. Take how it starts, with Cleo flashing back to a childhood in an abusive home, asking for comfort, and offering some of her own with loving advice -- all over one of the album's several backdrops that takes slight if deliberate turns, gradually advances and recedes in intensity, and folds in elements liable to activate tear ducts. In the second song, Cleo sings of romantic desertion, attesting "I'm still here" with as much steadiness as the drum pattern beneath her voice. Afterward, she sings mostly of gratitude, motherly love, and reassurance, always with tenderness and resolve. While "Sunshine" is worthy of its title with its soft glow and sense of essential renewal, and "Spirit" is a grand finale, the album's emotional apex is located elsewhere. "23" is made of sweet soul that dazzles with a melodious bassline, mallets, harp, and other strings in full effect. The music facilitates Cleo's difficult talk with her mother, in which the singer makes known her pain, frustration, and sympathy without equivocation”.
If you have not heard Mother or did not know about Cleo Sol, I would advise you spend some time with the album. It is a fantastic work with brilliant songs. 23 and Don’t Let Me Fall are among the highlights. Those who did not quite grasp the full promise of Mother missed something special. Mother is an album that is…
WORTH another spin.