This 25-year-old British singer-songwriter holds all of the elements of elegance in her debut album, Sing To The Moon.
Along with Mvula’s infallible vocals, the 12 songs of this LP are layered in strings, horns and the harpsichord, as well as glimmering backup vocals.
While all of these elements are brought together with a polished touch of a major label deal, the album by no means carries the emotional power that her cited influences of Jill Scott, Lauryn Hill and Erykah Baduh have achieved in the past.
The sheer length of tracks ‘Can’t Live With The World’ and ‘Is There Anybody Out There’ sound more beige than beautiful as they languish past the five-minute mark. While ‘Father, Father’ and ‘I Don’t Know What The Weather Will Be’ suffer from the unfortunate filler syndrome.
However Mvula proves through the neo soul swagger of upbeat tracks like ‘Green Garden’ and ‘That’s Alright’ that her entrance into an international music career is worth noting.
Her past work with gospel choirs and a capella groups, along with a degree in composition has allowed the singer to find her own relatively unique sound without being too left of field from anything you’ve ever heard before.
Ballads like ‘Diamonds’ and ‘She’ (taken from last years debut EP) are Mvula’s best examples of exquisiteness, but much of Sing To The Moon leaves listeners wanting for something with more intent, while only glimpses of it are offered.
Sing To The Moon will find a home as background music in cafés and restaurants, but the album is unlikely to last long in the foreground.
