Read FireBoy Laughter, Tears and Goosebumps Album Review while listening to album below.
There is a Nigerian proverb that states that “a day that is going to be nice begins to show it goodness from the moment you are waking up”. FireBoy DML showed that his day in the musical scene was going to be very bright when he released “Jealous” single. Making songs especially Afrobeat song that are highly influenced by RnB and Soul genre of music is usually tricky. However listening to FireBoy’s compositions in his Laughter, Tears and Goosebumps album shows some level of mastery of his sound. He created songs that have same style and theme especially in his message, production and vocal style. FireBoy is not a musician who is confused of the sound he wants to make. By carefully selecting his beats and lyrics, he has been able to make a good album.
Singer and Rapper: Olamide who doubles as the founder and CEO of Yahoo boy no Laptop (YBNL) records made a good move by dropping Lyta and sticking to FireBoy. Creating an ablum with zero featured artist is a class of it’s own. With this album and the type of songs he has dishes out; he has shown a good level of controled diversity and creativity in sound and lyrics.
THE THEME
This is predominately a Love song album with one or two songs that talks about living life to the fullest. Aparts from the songs that he has already released as singles, FireBoy prepares some other good songs. “King” which is a Love song can send the wrong message when one hears the title. He sings to his lady to treat him like a king because he can do anything for her. He however explains that he can fight for her love but he will not beg to be loved. “Gbas Gbos” is another Love song that talks about making love after a hard time working. He speaks about working hard in the studio and will love the idea of making some real good love to reset himself.
Another Love song which is highly influenced by some RnB vibes is “Like I do”. This song is a good drive time song. He sings about being the only one to treat his lady right. “Vibration” is song that talks about a lady with a great body. In praising the lady’s body, he exclaims that her body is causing some real vibrations. Other songs that talks about life and hustle are “Wait and See” and “High on Life”. In “High on Life” he sings about his cardinal rule of life. He States that he is high on Life because his life is a Melody claiming that all he does is work hard and save time for his family. “Wait and See” talks about his hustle and his mind set. Talking about people’s views about him and how they treated him; he declares that they should wait and see him succeed before their own eyes.
THE PRODUCTION
Working intensively with Pheelz the Mister Producer: who is one of the official producers at YBNL, Fireboy made an album dominated by shekere. Shekere is type of shakers used for Afrobeat realated songs. About eighty percent of the songs in this album are dominated by pure Afrobeat vibes. A good example of such song like “Gbas Gbos”. It also had extensive use of the kind of solo keys that Fela Kuti used in his productions.
What can separate this album from many albums made by Nigerians is the clear change from the regular ponpon sounds. Instead it deals with a purer Afrobeat sound and some Afrofusion. For example in a song like “Energy” has close relationship with a regular RnB song but the presence of some Bongo sounds switched it. In another song which fuses Afrobeat and Makosa beats is “High on Life”. The use of a snare rim sound for the Makosa snare while blending with the shekere is just epic especially with the looped African folk vocals. In general this album has a high level of controlled diversity in sound. Although lots of genres of music are in play, Pheelz tried to keep them sounding Afrobeat.
POSSIBLE HITS AND FLOPS
All the shekere dominated sound are sure going to be Hit songs in Nigeria. By this I mean “Gbas Gbos”, “Vibration” and “High on Life” are going to become fans favorite. “King” and “Feel” are other good songs that could even go global in short time because of the easy going ponpon beat. There is really no flop in this album because is pure hard work; lyrically and production wise.
