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Review: Odeal – Lustropolis

The Nigerian singer’s nomadic life has directed his journey filled with genre-surfing properly, and he has been able to provide for all types of ears, but “Lustropolis” is mellower and more assured, playing around matters of the heart.

Odeal’s craft ticks it all, My first time hearing him sing was on Native’s Roaster album, where he ended the song with a short verse, an Afrobeats song. Two years on, and he has cemented himself as one of London’s favorite crooners, getting co-signed by Sza. After the success of “Sundays at Azuris”, it’s easy to expect smash hits like “Onome” and “Soh-Soh”, but the singer kicks things off with a thinner atmosphere. “Can’t Say,” the name of the opening track, sets the tone here. Over soft guitar strings, the warmth of Odeal’s voice serves as a guide through his pain, as he goes through it. He creates an ambient ballad, both achingly emotional and upsettingly sad. Amid all the sad hours, Odeal still keeps his head up on “Modern Day Suicide”, an eerie song, a very beckoning song that is centered around a tenuous relationship with beauty, and tinged with a bit of horror, as toxic as it gets.

Though his music is rooted in a classic R&B cloth, it still feels like it’s structured like popular music. These are three- to four-minute songs, with Odea’ls voice and writing skills providing melody and momentum. The lead single, “Temptress” holds the album’s badge of identity, specifically Odeal’s impressionistic, purely ornamental lyrical approach. The focus is on the sound of his voice, its tone, and emotive qualities, rather than what he’s actually saying, adding to the album’s ambiguous nature. The EP has a slot for only one feature, LVRN’s Sumnerwalker takes that spot on “You’re Stuck”, a record that glorifies their collaboration with love-saturated tales on austere piano melodies and diaristic reflections. There’s This bittersweet optimism that comes with summer’s presence, defining the character of the song as a perfect duet.

The EP’s arrangements are at par with Odeal’s heart, making it feel uniquely suited to the complicated emotions in these songs. “HBTS” is such a crushing song, he sounds finished and down bad, dabbling in the frigid plod of slow jazzy sounds, you could tell there were salty tears mixed with his ink during the writing sessions. The appropriate mood to be in before penning it all down, especially if it has to do with emotions. “Showbiz” sounds like a continuation of his last EP,  with a gentle fuzz of hazier pop- London sounds but more personal and grounded without ever feeling melodramatic. You can bop your head to it with teary eyes. He ends the EP with “Blame U”, a song with a series of faceted R&B compositions,  asking us to lean in for a whispered confession, where he lays all the blame on his lover.

“Lustoprolis” is a sprawling soul opus full of heartbreaks and self-assessment. The singer sounds perplexed through its entirety, and his voice teeters between hope and hopelessness, ungodly hours,  perseverance, and surrender, elements that often hide themselves in lust.

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