Musical Thoughts: NAO

-
So I have this story highlight section on my Instagram called "Musical Thoughts".

  Sidebar the little title section didn't have enough space to put the word thoughts so I used the emoji thought bubble convey the idea

 I digress, but basically, it is a highlight section where I post ALLL of the music I am appreciating, or want to appreciate. I share musicians, bands and artists I want my friends to know about. So I figured why not, make a corresponding section on my blog where I can talk more about the one thing I've had a burning passion for.

So without further rambling, I present the first Musical Thoughts blog post on featured artist NAO.

Back Story

NAO is a British soul singer. I first heard about NAO in one of my deep dives through the popular British music scene. Usually, I do that by listening to BBC Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra and supplement it with the BBC Sound Of...List.

NAO was featured on the BBC Sound Of 2016 list and from my first listen of her song Zillionaire, I knew I was in love. As I'm writing this post I'm learning a lot more about her history and musical background. She's studied vocal jazz, has been a backing vocal artist and has been featured on the albums of some of my favorite artists (Disclosure and Mura Masa), she also a few songwriting credits for artists such as Ariana Grande and Stormzy. Honestly learning about her just makes me love her more.

Also, can we just take a moment to appreciate the everloving shit out of her amazing vocal range? Her voice has such a unique quality and tone to it, then she hits her lower register and I get heart eyes.

The Bops

Her debut album For All We Know, as well as her earlier EPs, have given me so many magical songs that I used to satiate my palate.

So as I mentioned before the original bop that drew me to NAO was Zillionaire but the one that I played and continue to play on a continuous loop is Bad Blood. Ughh what a JAM. I'm listening to a live performance of this as I write this paragraph and I'm still in love. 

The lyrics of this song make you think of an old relationship of some sort, old friendships, and the feeling you get when looking back on it. The moments before you drifted apart from them, the fun, the quiet, the peace but then nostalgia also glosses over the negatives sometimes. 

In the same breath of letting your thoughts flow is Girlfriend. On this track, NAO waxes poetically about what it's like when you want to be a part of someone's life, romantically at least. 


But I cannot even begin to dissect or even select a song or two to write about from her sophomore release, Saturn. Every time I try to choose one song, another one pops up right behind it and makes a very solid argument as to why I should go with that one. 

What I can say is that this album has been a GODSEND in an emotionally draining space and age range. What made this album ascend into my list of albums that reflect my life at some point, was when she explained the meaning behind the album title on her NPRmusic Tiny Desk Concert. Based on the Astrological concept of Saturn's Return and the effects that you feel in your mid-late 20's and possibly into your 30's. I almost balled. This album so aptly invokes the fears, the emotional stress, the anxiety and sometimes waves of sorrow that I've been feeling for a while. So much so that I find peace in listening to her discography, especially when songs from this album appear on the shuffle.

Last Thoughts

I honestly feel like she is such a magical performer and I truly cannot wait to see her live. This will happen for me. But please go and watch her Tiny Desk performance and then go and listen to For All We Know then Saturn. You truly will not regret it.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Having Faith

-
Image
As I have mentioned an ungodly number of times on this blog, I am a walking ball of anxiety. And it affects so many parts of my life, especially because I've gone so long without actively working to fix it (2 decades basically). One of the aspects of my life that got hit the hardest was my relationship with God. I've always been apart of the church. I was a churchgoer and an active participant within the church for basically my entire life. And then I stopped. I let life and moving away from home for college affect my relationship with God. And in doing so I eventually developed intense anxiety surrounding going to church and sometimes even being around other Christians. This honestly has to be a joke because I live with a Jamaican grown, born-again Christian woman for a mother. Imagine going through a crisis of faith for years and a mom who cannot understand how you went from a regular and active churchgoer to barely having gone to church in years. Shit goes from peacefu
Read more

Let Me Explain

-
So, hey. I know, this isn't consistent. I would say I'm working on that but that would be a lie. This is why we have the whole Instagram thing. You follow and interact there and here. So where one is slacking the other catches. "But Pandora, you don't post regularly on there." HA, a bald-faced lie. Ya girl just saw THE Queen of the Dancehall, Spice at the Bayfest concert held at the beautiful Biscayne Bay campus of FIU ' GO PANTHERS, RAW' and lost my whole entire voice. What a Queen, what a performance. You know who else was there, Harmonik. For all the Kompa fans in the building. My homies from Ayiti were KILLING it on the dancefloor. Showing the good folks how to Kompa and have fun. Guess who else was being a baller, Harmonik's guitarist. Good sir was catching that good good Kompa whine AND playing the guitar. ' Yes, you read that right.' I was out there attempting my lil' 1, 2 Kompa steps. That whole set was such fun man, a WHOLE
Read more

Happy Valentimes Day, My Sweet Baboushkas

-
Image
I have to plan out my Valentine's Day or risk getting super in my feelings. Like I get into a rather depressive yet reflective vibe for a few days, especially in the days leading up to Valentine's Day. So whatever plans I made, have to live up to expectations or that'll dampen my mood for a good week. Then it's just an extended few days after of sad music. Not gonna lie, this day has been an excessively angsty one for me personally, as someone who is perpetually single and tends to be surrounded by many folks in multiple different stages of a relationship each year. I start to fixate on a lot of the things that I view as unfulfilled personal goals of my childhood, the lack of a substantial romantic relationship being the focal point for this particular period of angst. But now that I'm older and wiser though ya girl is high-key not so fixated on being companionless and surrounded by relationships. It helps that I've always had spectacular friends that get
Read more