aaamusic | On 23, Oct 2013

Misogynists, whether you be male or female, look away now; this is not for you. This powerful, fierce, ball-busting woman Lea Lea will blow your brains out.

‘Wanderer’ kick starts your half-hour of karate chops to the lugs. Expect quite a dark sound with many afro-beats, with a slightly trap feel and a hint of dubstep. In fact, expect that right the way through the album! Now I’m one for complete freedom of expression and all that, but I actually found the chorus of ‘Dry’ rather offensive. Not MTV VMA 2013 performance type of offensive, but it just sounds like she’s mocking quite a lot of people, especially with the line “Dry/Like a menopausal woman’s sex drive”… I mean, come on! But maybe I’m just stuffy.

The rest of the album is this heated, with a lot of African drumming influences running through it. It’s all very exciting rhythmically, and I think that is what I like best about the album. Lea Lea also addresses topical issues such as domestic abuse within her songs, and that’s very brave for a debut – so kudos to Lea! Final track ‘The Road’ features prolific reggae writer Horace Andy, so look forward to that. I’ve never been intimidated by a song before, much less an album, but here we are!

★★★★★

Emma Dodds