Nigerian-French singer-songwriter Bukola "Asa" Elemide debuted with
Asa (2007), produced by Cobhams Asuquo. Her sweet and versatile vocals
float inside opulent string arrangements.
The gospel-reggae shuffle Fire on the Mountain
and Jailer, a quintessential example of her soul-dub-jazz fusion,
are the musical peaks of an album that is sometimes too
ethereal (Bibanke). She can be poignant even with modest musical means
(Subway) and
her vocals can engage the orchestra in breathtaking ways (No One Knows).
Her music doesn't break any ground but she's more elegant and eclectic that most
dance-pop balladeers of the time.
Beautiful Imperfection (2010), produced by Benjamin Constant,
contains
the Amy Winehouse-esque
soul-jazz strut Be My Man,
and the bluesy The Way I Feel, but mostly cruises on mediocre
Afro-pop fluff like
Why Can't We and
Ba Mi Dele.
Bed of Stone (2014), produced again by Constant and mostly composed by
Blair MacKichan, and containing the singles Dead Again and Eyo,
and
Lucid (2019), produced by drummer "Marlon B" Lewis and containing The Beginning, Good Thing and My Dear,
are largely uneventful.
V (2022), produced by 19-year-old Peace "P.Priime" Oredope,
includes collaborations with Nigerian singer Ayodeji "Wizkid" Balogun and Ghanaian-American Amaarae (born Ama Serwah Genfi) but generally fails to recreate the
spirit of the first album, which seems to be lost forever.
The Caribbean-sounding
Mayana is typical of this new course of trivial dance-pop.
Her voice has lost any distinctive feature, and so has her music.
