I first discovered Lianne La Havas through a YouTube video of her performing a cover of Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes” at 2013’s Glastonbury Music Festival. I thought it was a fantastic cover and an incredible R&B take on one of my favorite indie songs. It took 7 years before that cover came on streaming services on her self-titled album Lianne La Havas. However, this album is more than just a cover of “Weird Fishes” with some other good songs. This album is a fantastic blend of R&B and singer/songwriter with elements of folk and pop.
The opener “Bittersweet” is easily my favorite song on the album and a fantastic opener to the album. The song starts with these mellow piano chords and a fantastic drumbeat. On first listen, I thought it was just going to be a nice chill song, but once the chorus came in for the first time, I was blown away. The song builds on itself slowly, and I cannot stop singing along to it. The guitar and the groovy bass throughout “Read My Mind” adds a bit of funk to the song that just makes me bop my head. The song is about falling in love, and I just want to dance when I listen to it. “Green Papaya” is more on the laidback side of the album. It’s calm and tender. “Can’t Fight” is closest to 90s neo-soul the album gets with its instrumentation being reminiscent of Lauren Hill and Erykah Badu. “Paper Thin” is on the sadder side of the album. It was a weird choice for a single, but her somber performance sells the track.
“Out Of Your Mind (Interlude)” is a beautiful harmonizing interlude leading into the “Weird Fishes” cover and starting the second half of the album. One of my favorite parts of “Weird Fishes” is where the drums start as the original drums from the Radiohead version of the song, but it switches to a more R&B and swing groove after the first measure showing how Lianne is not afraid of doing things differently. It would be nearly impossible for the band to match the classic original version of the song, so they don’t. They take the song in a different direction. Instead of Thom Yorke’s frantic vocals and anxious instrumentation of the original. Lianne La Havas’s calming vocals are luscious and beautiful. The build-up into the outro is fantastic by the band, and of course, the outro is incredible. I honestly love this cover more than the original. It is an incredible and a wonderful midpoint of the album. “Please Don’t Make Me Cry” has a magnificent chorus as Lianne begs her love interest to stay with her. It’s another key example of why the revival of neo-soul is leading to fantastic pieces of music. “Seven Times” is another great song. I like how much she holds onto drums and uses them sparingly throughout the track. I think it’s unique and works well in the song. “Courage” is slow and mellow. It is the most intimate song on the album, and the isolation of just the guitar and her vocals is stunning. The close “Sour Flower” is a sensational closer to the album. It’s almost 7 minutes in length, but that length allows the song to evolve. The extended instrumental outro is a perfect way to end the album and allows the backing instrumentation that was fantastic throughout the album to get its moment to shine in the final moments. It slowly fades out over the last minute as the album ends.
Lianne La Havas’s self-titled third album is a fantastic piece of neo-soul and exemplifies how songwriting and live instrumentation can bring out the best elements in an album. It was easily one of my favorite albums of last year, and I keep coming back to it for how the 11 tracks are perfectly crafted.
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