FEATURE:
Revisiting…
Laura Mvula - Pink Noise
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ONE of my favourite albums…
PHOTO CREDIT: Danny Kasirye
from the past decade came from the sensational Laura Mvula in 2021. I have always been a fan of hers, but her third studio album, Pink Noise, is her peak. Released on 2nd July, 2021, I wanted to look back at this wonderful album ahead of its second anniversary. I think that Pink Noise should have won the 2021 Mercury Prize. Although Arlo Parks was deserving with Collapsed in Sunbeams, Pink Noise was too good to be overlooked in that sense! Mvula signed with Atlantic Records in October 2018 – under two years after another major label, Sony, unceremoniously dropped her. Atlantic have given her a lot of support and freedom. They know that she is a great artist, so it is a big loss to Sony! Rather than focus on that, I want to bring in an interview from NME. Mvula was discussing Pink Noise and looking ahead. I shall come to a couple of reviews for an album that you need to revisit. One that deserves to be played more on the radio. It is one of the most infectious, accomplished and memorable albums from this decade. A thing of wonder:
“Fast-forward to July 2021 and it’s clear she made the right decision. Mvula’s new album ‘Pink Noise’ is a triumphant reinvention that streamlines her abundant vocal, songwriting and production gifts into a shiny, ’80s-inspired package. The delirious, Michael Jackson-channelling single ‘Got Me’ deserves to become one of the biggest hits of the summer – so let’s hope Love Island‘s music programmers are paying attention.
Today, she says having a new management team that fully understands her is really helping. “If I say, ‘I don’t want to do that’, or, ‘Can we do this differently next time?’, I don’t have to be worried about fulfilling the stereotype of ‘the scary Black woman’ who, as soon as she says something with any degree of assertiveness, gets called ‘threatening’ or a ‘diva’,” she says. “I can speak freely and I feel like everyone has a shared desire to make this thing go the furthest it can go.”
Still, artists are often complicated creatures, and Mvula says that while making ‘Pink Noise’ she actually thrived on the initial indifference of her co-producer Dann Hume, who’s worked with Wiz Khalifa and Troye Sivan. Because he “didn’t seem bothered” about working with her, she almost felt like she had to “woo him”. Before she bonded with Hume, a member of alt-rock band Evermore, Mvula spent 18 months going into songwriting sessions with various producers she had never worked with before. It was a new experience for an artist who considers herself “very self-sufficient” – and one she says she enjoyed – but an album concept stubbornly refused to emerge.
“I got so overwhelmed that I remember asking my manager, ‘What’s the protocol if I can’t deliver [the album] and have to break the contract?'” she admits.
The breakthrough came when she and Hume began working on ‘Safe Passage’, a glistening mid-tempo track from the album that begins with booming, Phil Collins-style drums. “I remember leaving the session and thinking, ‘This is it – this is the album,'” she says. Mvula had already made the “skeleton” of the song at home, but Hume helped her to elevate it. “I think it’s hard for any producer to work with me because I produce as well,” she says. “It’s about taking something that’s already there and making it shine even more. And I think that’s harder than giving a producer [a demo with] a vocal and a guitar and saying: ‘Make a whole musical world for me.'”
Because she clearly understands how a fellow artist works, Mvula declined to over-direct Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil when they recorded ‘What Matters’. “Everyone at the label was like, ‘You should tell him exactly what you want him to do’, but I was like, ‘Nah’,” she recalls. Instead, Mvula says she simply texted Neil with the message: “I feel like you’ll know what to do with it.” When she got the track back a week later with Neil’s vocal part added, Mvula’s instant reaction was: ‘Oh my God – it’s amazing!’ So I mixed it and it was done – just like that,” she says. “The whole process was basic and organic.”
By this point, we’ve been talking for so long that Mvula is being asked to vacate her spot. “I will get up and go,” she promises, “but I keep looking around because I’m in Shoreditch House in the library and I’ve performed here once before. I remember that gig so well because it’s such an intimate space, and I want that feeling again with ‘Pink Noise’.”
This time, however, Mvula believes the would be quite different. “People would sort of lament to my previous albums because they were made to make you feel very deeply,” she says. “‘But ‘Pink Noise’ is loose – real loose.” She smiles excitedly. “You know, I can’t wait to see people shackin’ out to these joints.”
If you are new to Laura Mvula, it is well worth going back to her debut, Sing to the Moon. That turned ten in March. Everything leads up to the brilliant and inspiring Pink Noise. It makes me fascinated to see what she comes up with next! I am going to round off with a couple of hugely positive reviews. This is what DIY had to say when they immersed themselves in the phenomenal Pink Noise:
“Laura Mvula hasn’t had the easiest ride over the past few years. 2013 debut ‘Sing To The Moon’ captured praise for its stellar songwriting, orchestral flourishes and diamond-cut balladry, but peppy 2016 follow-up ‘The Dreaming Room’ arrived to muted fanfare despite the quality of its contents. Following this second effort she was suddenly dropped by her label (via email, pre-pandemic) which jump-started a few years off the mainstream grid. When listening to the sheer power of ‘Pink Noise’, it’s crazy to think Laura seriously considered the prospect of returning to teaching in this downtime. She directly channels recent setbacks into the heart of the LP: on ‘Conditional’ she sings of “another blow to the ego” among sludgy industrial synths and sudden maniacal bursts of saxophone runs. The record largely takes its cues from ‘80s synth-pop, an age of music frequently mined by artists but when it’s done well - as it most certainly is here - it can fashion some real showstoppers.
You can almost feel the dry ice submerging ‘Safe Passage’, a stark opener that lays down the laws of the land with its sparkling synth-play. ‘Magical’ is a chest-pounding love song that builds and soars, drawing back only at the point where it feels as if it’s about to genuinely pop; “Do you remember the time when we were together?” she howls as her voice lifts to the peak of its powers. It’s an album of varying moods, too. Vulnerability rears its head among the swelling brass notes of ‘Golden Ashes’ - “I lost my way again,” she sings before pleading the powers that be to stop her from drowning again. Almost every song here could pass as a single. The title track is catered with slices of tight funk guitar and slinky synths that Prince would be proud of, later ‘Got Me’ bops with its knowing nod to Michael Jackson. Simon Neil from Biffy Clyro guests on the slinky funk ballad ‘What Matters’ with his unmistakable delivery sparkling in the disco lights - a surprising, yet perfect casting. Punchy, fun and beautifully constructed, ‘Pink Noise’ is the triumphant sound of Laura Mvula finding her feet. A career-defining return that most artists can only dream of; pure synth-pop ecstasy”.
I’ll round off with this review from The Line of Best Fit. Awarding it 9/10, it is clear this was one of the defining albums of 2021. With Laura Mvula writing and producing alongside Dann Hume, this feels and sounds like a very personal and passionate album. An artist sounding as free and happy as they have ever been! Go and seek out this magnificent album:
“It’s hard to believe she was close to ending her music career and returning to teaching but three years ago, but after dedicated time focusing on her craft, we’ve been blessed with an album inspired by the decade she was born in.
Pink Noise is an obvious departure for Mvula, as she sheds her stripped back, acoustic style and ascends into the world of keytars, smoke machines and shoulder pads to boot. However, the religious undertones and hints of gospel remain in her work, keeping the album rooted in her style and familiar to listeners as she ventures into new pastures.
Starting off with, literally, a bang; Pink Noise opens with “Safe Passage” – an '80s drum masterclass swathed in funky basslines and synths apt for the Stranger Things soundtrack, along with a choral backing harkening back to tracks like “She” from Sing To The Moon. These vocals are prominent in the final act of closing track “Before The Dawn” too, and work as a fitting bookend to the album - showcasing Mvula’s talent for incredibly moving choral arrangements, but also beckoning back to her previous work to not lose sight of where she’s come from.
The aforementioned religious undertones take centre stage in “Church Girl” and deliver the most heartfelt message on the Pink Noise (“How can you dance / with the devil on your back?”), along with arguably her strongest vocal performance on the album. It’s a shame then that the other somewhat evangelical track “Golden Ashes” doesn’t really meet the standard of the album and seems to lose its flow amongst the complex chords and melodies – trying to go somewhere it doesn’t quite reach.
It’s strange to see Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil appear on the track-list as he’s an odd choice for a collaboration on an '80s pop album. Somehow though it works, and Neil’s vocal blends into the slow-dance ballad of “What Matters” seamlessly. The track stands as a welcome breather on the album, and is carefully places to let you rest before the final two tracks explode the joy and colour of the '80s all over you.
Tracks such as “Remedy” and title track “Pink Noise” take the funk to the next level through ringing guitars and Prince-inspired riffs, basslines and spoken word moments that raise the sexiness of the track (“Give in / to the feeling”). Not to mention the wonderful “Got Me” that almost takes '80s to a tongue-in-cheek caricature of the style, using cliché instrumentation, a swung 6/8 time signature, and the attitude of a woman in a power suit swinging her keytar on stage in front of 50,000 people. It’s truly the high of the album.
All in all, Pink Noise is a roaring success for Mvula’s reinvention. It’s a joyous celebration of her past, her present, and all the success that is to come in her future. Laura Mvula is back, and she’s not going anywhere”.
In worthy need of a revisit, I feel that Pink Noise is perfect for the summer evenings. From one of our greatest artists, I love everything Laura Mvula put into Pink Noise. So sexy, funky and energising, this is an album that everyone needs in their life. You can even grab it on pink vinyl. Take some time out and lose yourself in…
THIS majestic album.